The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-03-30
BURIED BY A SLIDE.
Lab0rer Entombed on Great
Northern Coast Line,
TWO OTHERS BARELY ESCAPE
Atlls Como Down and Surprise Gang
81 LaboRsrs-Slido Follows Slide
d Qaiek suecession.

The dEst fatal accident resulting from the
slides on the shore line OF the Greats Northern
road occurred between II and / o'clock yestsr.
DAY morning. when one man was killed and
TWO were oertouoly injured. The slides began to
come down shout o'clock on Tuesday night
and one followed another In quick succsssion
through the night and day until the road was
blocked 20 thoroughly that It viii not b cleared
for two or three daya
The dfst slide occurred about . ocloc on
Tuesday night near Mosher. about twenty-five
miles north OF the city. 4 gang of laborsrs went
down from Everett on . hand car about mid.
night and had fairly got TO work when. about
l2:O o'clock. they heard warning rumble in
the darkness. Knowing that 1t must b slide,
they scattered to right and left in . rush to
safety. Charles Rode and Frank Kelly, fearing
that they could not get clear OF the place before
the slide came down on them, ran to the edge
OF the track and jumped over the bulkheading
into the Sound A moment later the slide
came down, carrying with It trees and stumps.
It did not stop on the track. but swept on into
the Sound, pinning down the two fugitives
with IL
How long the two helpless men lay In the
shallow water they themselves probably do not
know, though Rode says IL must have been two
hours. Rode says that tho posts Of the bulk.
head were pushed over BY the slide and caught
his legs, and he thinks . second slide pushed
him further out under some loga He managed
to get hold Of ono and crawl out after lying In
the water for twenty minutes, and after about
two hours the tug Nettis B.. hearing their cries
In passing, put In and rescued him and Kelly.
It was that second slide which brought death
to another man, Robert Baker. The rest Of the
gang had just returned to their work and were
about 70 begin shovsiing again when another
roar was heard from above and the majority of
IA hnV~ ffvrNn tn ali NJ hA
when IL rushed down upon the track. burying
the hand car and Baker with It The track was
covered with earth and trees, seumps and rocks
for length Of $50 feet aud to depth Of twenty
I'VE to forty feet. the descending mass sweeping
into the Sound GOO feet Of the Telegraph wire and
two poles
Bakers body had not been recovered, 20 far a.
heard, at tho time Of going to press. Rode and
Kelly were taken to the Bayvisw hotel at Ever
cit and Dr. Rufus H. Smith, the company's sur
geou, went up at noon and dressed their in
jurie1 Rode's right ankle was dislocated and
one Of the bones of his right leg was fractured.
Kelly was badly cut In the face, was bruised on
the right knee and had suffered severe shock.
Both men are likely to recover.
This 10 the first fatal accident caused BY slides
on the road. several men have been buried in
the mud. bruised or otherwise injured, but no
man has before been killed or seriously injured.
Slides continued to come down all day, and
there are believed to b about ten of them be-
tween Everett and Edmonds. o. varying size.
The whole Of the great overhanging bluff seems
to be slipping forward and breaking OF like
the ice from glacier 20 that there 10 NO telling
when the general movement will cease. There
ID apparently an undermining Of the
hills in progress also. for it 10
not merely topping over Of
the hills which are above the general level OF
the country, or which ovsrhang the beach. The
movement seems to reach deeper down than she
level OF the track. for In some places the earth
becomes transformed into mud BY becoming
saturated with moisture and then literally
sQuashes down and out toward the Sound,
pushing the whole roadbsd In front OF It The
piles of the bulkheading have been often
pushed 20 Close to the rails that they
have had to be cut on in order to give
the trains clearance, and ~ they have been
pushed farther out they have been sawed Oh
until they are now down to the level OF the
track. Thus ct many points the track has had
to be moved back several feet into place.
Until the road il cleared, passengers will be
carried as Ear a. Everett by the steamer City Of