St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1893-10-26
RECORD OF THE WEEK.

Another FriehtfnI Railroad Wreck
TWenty-Six Lives LOSt-Sickenin9
Scenes.
Raymond and Whitcomb special ex
cursion train returning from Chicago
colided with Pacific express going at the
rate of about 80 miles an hour, at Battle
Creek, Mich, about a. m, last Friday.
The engineers and fremen, when they saw
that collision was inevitable, shut off
steam, reversed engines, put OH brakes
and all jumped and escaped without
serious injury. Both engines were badly
wrecked. Two day coaches on the west
bound train were telescoped, and in
these a horrible sacrifice of life took
place.
The second coach cut through the
third coach like knife and the roof pass
ed over the heads of the sleeping and the
Inflated passengers were entombed in a
fiery furnace. The engine and baggage
car of the special were badly wrecked,
but the coaches, being sleepers, and the
train moving slowly, escaped injury.
The passengers in the four coaches were
more or less injured, and in one of them,
No 13, called the unlucky coach, which
has been in several accidents before, there
were twenty-five dead bodies taken out
that morning by the fremen. They were
pinioned under seats and jammed up
against the end of the coach by the next
coach, which had telescoped it, and then
burned like rats in trap.
Disobedience Of orders by the engineer
of the Raymond train is said to be the
cause of the disaster. The accident was
a mile from the fire station, and before
water could be turned on the cars they
were all burned. No one on the Ray
mond special was injured. The Pacific
express was made up of 13 old coaches
and four of them were completely burned,
catching fire from the lamps in the cars.
The bodies were burned so badly as to
be unrecognizable. AS the second car
was driven back through the third it
swept the people in mass to the north
end of the latter car in the vicinity of the
stove where most of the bodies were at
terward found. One passenger escaped
through the doorway. Others who
escaped smashed out the windows and
climbed through. Only three escaped from
the left side and not more than six from
the other side. All the rest of the oc-
cupants of the second coach persisted
The most horrible sight was that pre-
sented by Mrs. Charles Van Dusen Of
Fort Plains, N. Y She succeeded in get.
ting halt way out of the window, but
her legs were fastened, and those who
ran to her assistance could not release
her She was burned to death before
their eyes, with one-half of her body still
hanging out of the window.
TWO vERMoNTERs ESCAPE DEATH.
c. H. Ward and B. S. Ward of More.
town, VT, were in the Inflated cars but
were among the few who escaped unin.
jured. When the shock of the collision
was over Z. H. Ward jumped out of the
left side of the car through window
The seat in front of him was occupied BY
woman and her baby. He managed
to pull the woman through the window
She begged him to save her baby, but the
little one was fastened beneath the seats
and burned to death. The poor mother
was nearly crazed and had to be removed
by force. Ward says that the seat in
front of this woman was occupied by g
young man. In the seat back OF the one
he and his brother occupied were two
young men. None of these escaped. His
brother, B. S. Ward, came out through
the root in some manner, just how ht
cannot tell. He jumped off the roo
and assisted the Smith family of Fort
Plains, N. Y, consisting of father
mother and two children. All four ar,
more or less seriously injured bu
miraculously escaped death, while al
around them passengers less fortunate
were either killed outright or fastened
down in the debris and burned to deatl
before help could reach them.
The death list includes &c people, Will
% Others were seriously hurt.
Thursday.
A panic occurred among $50 childre,
in a Washington school building an,
many were injured, some of them per
haps fatally. Carlisle tells tn
senate that deficit of over $50, 900 90,
in the revenues of the government for tn
current fiscal year is inevitable. Til
Canada Bank Note Company at Mon
treal, lost $15O,OOO worth of propert
by fire.-Old Mystic, Conn, for man
years thriving manufacturing hamlet
is now deserted; there is no prospec
that it will ever be restored to prosper
ity.-Several persons lost their lives by
steam boiler explosion at Spokane
Wash.-Recent floods in few districts c
Oaxaca, Mexico, did great damage
carrying off cattle and sheep and drown
ing many people; it rained in torrent
without cessation for Is hours, and hur
dreds of people saved their lives by clint
ing trees.
Friday.
Perm has adopted the cold e+,rd,.