Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1893-10-25
WRECKED AND BURNED.
HORRIBLE COLLISION on THE
GRAND TRUNK ROAD.
rwenty-Six Worlds Fair Tourists Killed
and Their Bodies Cremated No,r Bat
tie Greek, TrAInmeR Disobey
Orders With Awful Results.

WcutS six cDaTTeu DOOleS OIL
worlds fair ex:ursionists lie in the
rooms of undertakers here as a direct
result of the efforts OF railroad mag
mates to compress into short spaco
of time the entire worlds fair passen.
ger affic. 1t may be that more lives
mined tweuty-six includes the total
number of the dead. Many were badly
injured and several will undoubtedly
die.
The terrible disaster was the result
of a collision in the yards of the Grand
Trunk railroad in the suburbs of this
city between clock and o'clock yes
terday morning. Fire which broke out
in moment from lamps in the cars
destroyed three passenger coaches and
burned the bodies of victims of the
collision and probably some Of those
who might otherwise have escaped
All OF the passengers killed were
from the EaA> and were ON their way
to the worlds fair to participate in the
Manhattan day exercises. 1t will be
days before the names of the dead can
be fully determined, for in nearly
every instance the fire destroyed all
means of Identification.
CAUSED BY DIsoBEYING OF ORDERS.
A Raymond and Whitcomb special
train of Boston passengers returning
from Chicago in charge of Conductor
Scott Of this city and Engineer Wool
ley, received orders at this station to
meet at Nichols the Pacific ex.
press of thirteen coaches, going
west, due at this station at
1876, but which was nearly three
hours late. The conductor or en-
gineer, or both, OF the Raymond spe-
cial disobeyed orders. passed Nichols
station and collided with the Pacific
express coming west at the rate of
bout thirty miles an hour. The two
engines were driven into each other
and totally wrecked. The one on the
express was a new Cook engine in use
only two weeks.
The engineers and hremen when
they saw that collision was inev-
liable shut off steam, reversed en-.
gines, put on brakes and all jumped
and escaped without serious injury.
The first three day coaches of the
train going west were completely tel
escaped, the second coach cutting
through the third coach like a knife
and the roof passing over the heads OF
the sleeping passengers.
Fire broke out from the lamps in
the cars and soon four were in flames.
All the passengers in the four burn
ed coaches were more or less injured
and in one of them-No 13, called the
unlucky coach which had been il
several accidents before-twenty-si six
dead bodies were taken from the
wreck by the firemen.
The dead were found pinched under
seats and jammed up against the end
OF the coach by the next coac ch, which
had tslescoped it.
BODIES CONSUMED BY FIRE
The accident was a mile from the
fire station and before water could be
turned on the cars were all destroyed
and the bodies burned so as to be un-
recognizable. In nearly every case
heads, arms or legs were burned off,
and none can be identified
As the second coach crashed through
the third it swept the people into the
north end of the car In the vicinity Of
the stove, where most o! the bodies
were afterward found. The car i'm
mediately took fire and in an instant
was all ablaze. The night yardmen
and ncighbors in the vicinity rushed
to the rescue as soon as possible.
One passenger escaped from the
doorway, but all of the others who
saved themselves broke the windows
and climbed through. Three only got
out of the left side and about six from
the right side of the coach.
Mrs. Charles Van Dusen Of Fort
Plains, \. Y. succeeded in getting
half way out of the window, but her
legs were so fastened that those who
went to her assistance could not rescue
her and she was burned to death be-
| fore the ewes of the spectators, one
half of her body hanging out of tn
| window. Before she perished she
gave her name.
| TwENTY-THREE UNIDENTIFIED CHARREI
BODIES.
Twentv-three dead bodies are un,
identified as all their clothing, heads
and arms have been burned of. On
one body of which the clothing was
partly consumed, were cards bearing
the name of A. A. Allen & Co., SIS Bay
street, Toronto.