The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-10-14

Y, who lay two miles away with injuries
from which she may die. There were scores
OF other cases where travelling companions
and relatives were separated, and some
killed or injured seriously.
The officials of the road were on the scene
as soon as a special could carry them from
Detroit. and State Railroad Commissioner
Billings also arrived before noon.
Engineer Whelan, who lives here, was
running the last section. He says: 81 saw
the signal in the yard to keep back, and
had my engine in hand, as 1 thought, but
when l came down near the standing train
my air brake would not work and l ran
into the coaches The failure of the air
made il impossible to stop. I never had
such an experience before
Rear brakeman Robert Walsh, of section
No. 1, had narrow escape. He had fin
ished trying the air brakes on the first
section and was walking to the rear Of his
train, a distance of only half a car length.
He said he would have touched the bell
rope to start when he got on the platform.
but fate was against him. AS he turned
around he looked up and saw the engine of
No. 2 almost on top of him. 1t struck the
car and he was only saved by the fact that
both engine and car had been raised up.
leaving him safe underneath. He realized
his position In an instant, and, gathering
himself up, ran out just as the engine fell
on the track and plunged on through the
car ahead the car being thrown sidewise,
just missing him. His arm was injured.
SCENES AND INCIDENTS.
The scene in the city and about the sta
ton after the wreck was indescribable.
Business was at a standstill all day, the
leading houses closing, while knots of men
and women stood on the street corners and
talked about the frightful event. Until
noon the streets In the neighborhood of the
station were filled with carriages and am
balances, undertakers' wagons and physi-
clans vehicles, while doctors ran to and
fro about the scene with instrument cases,
and priests and ministers were at hand to
minister to the suffering and dying. The
police had to rope off the space about the
station but even the Gordon of officers was
not sufficient to keep off the relic hunters
who crowded about like so many birds OF
prey. A group of Salvation Army girls
stood on a pile of debris and preached and
sang. Their words fell upon deaf ears.
Every one was wild with excitement, and
ran about trying to get nearer to the piles
of wood and twisted iron that were once
passenger coaches.
At the morgue and hospital there are pitt
full scenes. A stalwart bronzed young
farmer sat beside the body of his young
wife. Her head was gone. He said not
word, but his frame trembled with grief.
At the city hospital a sad case is that of
Johanna Healy. She lies on stretcher in
one OF the lower rooms shrieking in the
most agonizing manner. Both legs are
broken near the ankle and her right arm is
broken above the elbow, and she is terribly
injured about the body. Her recovery is
doubtful. She left her home at Norris
Run, Pa, yesterday. Near by lies Mrs.
Arson Harrington, of Elmira, n. Y, with
her right leg broken below the knee and
her body terribly bruised. Near her is her
dead baby, aged six months. Though in
awful agony, she constantly asks for the
child, and no one has the courage to tell
her that it will never again respond to her
voice.
A gangman in the Michigan Central
yards here tells of the narrow escape of a
woman and her child. They were in
telescoped and were among the first he
extricated from the wreck. Every stitch
OF clothing had been torn from the child's
body, but III had not received scratch.
The woman was also uninjured, save for a
cut of her arms.
At late hour tonight all the injured are
reported resting easy, with no prospects
of deaths in the cases of any of them.
The sheriff of Jackson county and the
police officers have taken possession OF the
effects of the dead to hold them for their
friends. coroner's jury was impaneled
this afternoon, and the inquest will begin
a o'clock Monday morning. The crews
of both trains have been subpoenaed to
give evidence. The division superintendent
says he found the engine reversed, thus
corroborating the engineer.
President Ledyard was on the scene, and
ne makes the following report to General
superintendent Miller at Detroit:
The. Delaware, Lackawanna &, Western
Wes he semaphore Signal protectna o
it. This train was followed by New
York Central excursion train. The, engi-
Jackson Junction, and they worked all
right. When he saw the semaphore set
against him he put on his brakes, but they
and the conductor tried the automatic
brake on one of the coaches, and that also
failed to work. The New York Central ex-
cursion train ran into the rear of the Del
aware, Lackawanna &z Western, teleScop-
ing two coaches, killing twelve people, in
JurlnB nVe seriously ana Hlleen not very
seriously
Twenty minutes for breakfast, but only
a moment in which to die,' was the horri-
bly, significant statement of Lloyd Wood
bury, of Bath, n. Y, a passenger on the
first section of the ill-fated worlds fair
excursion train. He stated to the United
Press correspondent that he stood on the
step of one of the wrecked coaches, smok-
inS cigar with a companion. He looked
back. and saw the second section ap-
preaching. He supposed, Of course, it
would turn off onto one of the switches,
but as it neared his section he realized the
terrible situation. Pushing into the car
where his wife and father, James Wood
bury, were seated, he called to them to
rush out. Before they could do so the
horrible crash came, and his wife and IA
ther were hurled into eternity. His COM
panion, who had been smoking with him,
had entered the car moment before and
was taken out with the dead Had the
wreck come one minute later Mr.. Wood
bury would undoubtedly have been among
the dead, as he intended going into the car,
when his attention was called to the ap-
preaching second section.