Rock Island daily Argus., 1893-09-23
THOMPSON FORGOT.
A Brakeman's Fearful Blunder
Costs Eleven Lives.
SWITCHED TO A SIDING AND DEATH
Ono Moment of Forgetfulness Results
in Terrible Wreck on
the Wabash.
TWENTY ON THE TRAIN BADLY HURT

A Passenger Train PIunges Into a Stand
ing Freight and Only One Coach Escapes
Demolition-The Man Who Caused the
Havoc Disappears ~ Realizing What
He Has Done-Recovery of the Dead
and Wounded-Eighty Lives Lost at Sea
-Perfious'4saIioon Trip.
KINGsBURY, Ind. Sept. 23.-Elevenb bodies
resting: upon improvised Stats and tables
under the roof of the modest Masonic hall
OF this sillage, and score of injured re-
cSEsed as inmates of the city hospital of
Peru seventy miles distant, tell the
story of the latest of railroad horrors, of
which this village has been the scene.
The revised list of dead and injured is as
follows:
Dead--J. II, McKenna, butcher, Hyde
Park, Mass; Harry French, aged IA, of
the London Charity school, London, Eng
land; Charles Birbee, ian Fransisco;
Alice Reed, East Boston, Mass. Miss Nell
lie B. Tucker, Boston, Mass; Warren G.
Ryder, Phoenix, Ariz; H. C. Zelle, Ger
many; J. d. Roundy, La Moille, Ia; John
Green, engineer passenger train, Ashley,
Ia; J. G. Coulter, conductor passenger
train, Detroit ". q Lyon, baggage mas
ter passenger train, Detroit
Injured-Franke p Dow, Fair Haven,
Wash, scalp wound; Miss NJ. A. Kelly,
Brookline, Mass, head cut aud badly
bruised; Otto Hnck, Hamburg, Germany.
bruised and ankles sprained; G. S. Hod
son, Dover, n. H, chin gashed and injuries
&c back; Mrs. s A. Seavy, Somerworth, n.
H, back injured, general contusions and
nervous prostration; Mrs G. w. Burbank,
New Orleans, right arm and both legs
broken-condition critical; Mrs. H. w.
Ryder, Phoenix, Ariz., face and body cut,
right leg broken; Simon Garfield, Iron
| wood, Mich, contusions of limbs and
body: Mrs. Garfield eife of above, left
arm broken, contusions on head; Mrs d.
Dugan Auderned, Pennsylvania, slight
bruises; W. J. Askins, residence unknown,
left leg fractured, internal injuries-un-
conscious; Edward Rush, London, Eng
land, youth, surface contusions; William
Evans, London, England, youth, both legs
broken; Albert Motion, youth, London,
England, right arm injured; Hattie
Hutchins,. child, Phoenix. Ariz internal
injuries; Mrs. B. G. Hill, Somersworth, n.
address, slightly bruised Henry Volking,
fireman of freight train, scalds and con-
tusions; John Barber, fireman passenger
train, scaids and contusions; Engineer
Whitman, of freight train, right arm
broken, hart in back.
One Moment of Forgetfulncss.
A moment of forgetfulness or absent
mindedness on the part of br keman who
is given the best of reputation by the Wa
bash officials tells the story of the seconds
that preceded the catastrophe. As to the
facts themselves there is no room for dis
pute. Freight train No. 4, eastbound,
from Chicago, was due at this point at 4:20
a. m. 1t was under orders to take the sid
ing and await the arrival of ~ eStbound ex-
press No. IS, which according to the sched-
ule should have passed the Kingsbury sta
tion at 4:40. The express, however was
away behind time, and owing to the heavy
travel growing out of the Worlds fair it
was divided into two sections, the second
section running twelve minutes behind
the first. Both sections were made up at
Buffalo, the passengers including people
from that city as well as from the various
lines centering in it from Canada and the
east.
What Was Brakeman Thompson Doing7
NllH UQ6 hUOWleuSe JUdU LD6
schedule he had twenty minutes to spare
Engineer Whitman, of the freight train,
proceeded up the siding to the main line TO
take water, the switch being thrown open
by Herbert Thompson, head brakeman of
the freight. After the engine had taken
water the freight was backed to the sid
ing, and Thompson closed the switch. Re
garding this latter fact there is no room
for question; for at $40 the first section of
the express, thirty minutes late, swept
past on the main track, giving the usual
signal-long and two short blasts-to init
mate to the freight that a second section
was following close behind What were
the movements of Brakeman Thompson
in the next few moments remains to
be developed.
For the Deadly Switch Is Open.
Certain it is that when twelve minutes
later the second section of the westbound
express came laundering along at a speed
OF forty miles an hour the switch was open.
In the eaply dawn the red lights at the
switch and the target were hardly discerna-
BILE, and it is question whether either the
engineer or fireman Of the passenger looked
for them, secure in their knowledge that
week1n and week out they had swept over
the same ground without hindrance. Like
flash of lightning, therefore, the train
took the siding, and almost before the
engineer and fireman realized that they
had missed the main track they had
crashed into the waiting freight.
SHRlEKS AND GROANS FILL THE AIR.
Frightful Effect of the Impact with the
Freight Train.
A second later and the air was filled
with shrieks, groans, moans and piteous
appeals for help and assistance, The pas
senger train consisted of a baggage car,
three ordinary coaches and two sleepers,
and the force of the collision was such
that only the rear sleeper escaped injury
The locomotive of the freight was driven
half way into the car in its rear, and the
baggage car of the passenger train was
thrown to one side, while the passenger