The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-02-17
IN A RAILROAD WRECK
JULIAN RALPH GIVES AN ACCOUNT
OF ONE IN WHICH HE FIGURED.
Most of the Passengers Were More
Surprised than Hurt. but Their
Excitment Came Afterwards.

railway wreck, know how it feels myself.
And having had two or three days with
the other survivors, have found out how
they describe the sensation. 1t occurs to
me that all other accounts of the expert
ences of persons in such a catastrophe have
been hastily gathered and written for the
daily press, and that there may be interest
as well as novelty in calm and thorough
account of such an adventure written one
week after it is over.
The transcontinental train of the day
was bowling down sharp grade, day
late, on the Southern Pacific tracks, and
was approaching the foot of the Sierra
Nevada chain. 1t was making at least for
ty miles an hour. 1t consisted of an engine,
two mail cars. an express car, a diner,
a day car, and two Pullman sleepers. The
land on either side of it it flew down
the grade was part of what re-
mains of the Great American Des-
ert. 1t was O'clock and night and
darkness had already closed around it.
had gone forward to the dining car, and
was enjoying the novelty of an a la carte
dinner such as is Only served-so far as
know-on the Southern Pacific system Il
had peppered my roast chicken and hashed
potatoes, ana was INDUCING in an attempt
to revive youthful memory by soaking
some buttered bred in the double portion
of stewed tomatoes which I had ordered.
Suddenly the dish of tomatoes shot from
the table to that one of my coat tails
which was spread out upon the corner of
the upholstered bench which sat. The
chicken was flung into my lap and had
time to notice that handful of toothpicks,
in silver cup or a shelf by my side, went
UP like water from a fountain, and fell in
a long thin stream down the narrow neck
of the water-caTafe at my elbow.
1t seemed to me that the train had re-
ceived just such a jolt as a train gets when
a locomotive is clumsily connected with it.
The jar was no greater than that-just a
sudden, short, sharp interruption of the
the hill There were two ladies dining
across the aisle. on the other side of the
car. A waiter was by my side, and the din
ing-car conductor was at the further end OF
the car. / was dining with DIR. Bowes, OF
San Francisco who sat opposite me at the
same table. | noticed that the ladies-one
gray-haired, the other under the middle age
were as calm as l. L never was more
posed had caused that shock. Just then
the car, which had stopped for an instant
rible, powerful humping motion. 1t
had left the track. and was be-
ing dragged over the ties. I stood
UP, but instantly remembered that 1 had
heard that in a railway accident it is safest
to be seated. I had been told that if one
stands up he is too easily thrown off his
feet, perhaps very violently. 1 think I said
Don't get up-keep your seats. At any
rate some one said it just as the thought
occurred to me. The Doctor also mad risen,
but both of US sat down.
THE WAITER KNEW IT.
The car did not bump over the ties for
more than two seconds, or for a longer d1s-
lance than twenty feet. Then it stood still.
and perfect silence reigned. The silence was
broken by the waiter, who said: DE
trains wrecked. 1 knew it was coming.
snected it-shuah'' The ladies still kept
their seats, but rose and went to the door.
meaning to get upon terra firma and see
what had happened. knew now that when
that first shock came the locomotive had
struck steel wedge hammered into a
frog" and had left the rails had been rum
ming over the ties for two hundred feet, and
had suddenly brought us to temporary
standstill by rolling over on it's side across
the track where it turned over and over on
it's side like a rolling-pin in the hands of a
heavy train behind it that showed it on
again. 1t the action of the automatic
safety brake that brought us to a StandStlll
as soon the brake was parted or broken
between the engine and the head car.
I could not leave the front door of the
diner, because the narrow passage was
blocked by a young girl with the ghastliest
whitest face 1 ever saw. She was school
teacher who had got on the train at Love-
locks and was going to Carson, where she
lived. for a weli-earned vacation. She said
afterward, 1 led her to my seat and
pressed a pillow behind her back, that she
was walking in a sort of a dream when
met her; that she was held on her feet by
a man who gripped each OF her elbows. and
that she wondered at each step how she
could summon the muscles which would
enable her to put one foot before the other.
Next to the newsboy, she was the most
badly frightened person on the train.
took her out into the air and walked her
up and down, and diverted her with the
to ioIy1 70 o1in 16~ ind
at last she was able to take a cup of tea
and be introduced to the other ladies on the
train.
But in the meantime had run out of the
car by the other door and had witnessed
remarkable sight. The engine had rid itself
of every tube and pipe and cock and pro-
track all covered with mud, a mere boiler
that looked thousand years out OF serv-
ice. The cab had dissolved into a million
little splinters. and was not to be seen or
even traced. The first postal car had gone
sideways into the desert and the next two
cars lay in the mud beside it. All three
had lost their trucks and were wrenched
and wrecked and gaping. The first coach,
day car, was standing on one edge of its
side at an angle of forty-five degrees, and
from under it brakeman looked up-dead,
pinned under the car, with a smile on his
handsome young face. In the car the stove
had emptied its redhot Goals OH the floor,
and then the water-tank had flung itself
upon the Goals and deluged them and put
out their fires The car behind nd the day car
track. The Pullman coaches had not been
dislodged from the rails or injured in any
way. Yet in front of them, in less than five
seconds, more damage had been done than
could be repaired by able workmen in a
month. Even the track was destroyed, and
where it remained the ties had been
wrenched all askew as they rested in the
earth.
NOTHING TO TELL.
The engineer and fireman were both in
jured slightly, burt they had no story to
tell. They simply said that they felt
the engine leave the track and rush
ward in strange way, but that they knew
absolutely nothing until they were brought
back to consciousness by finding themselves
in the mud, where both were flung when
the engine began to roll and roll like
barrel. There was no one in the first mail
car. In the second postoffice car the two
men at work said they remembered no great
shock but that the car seemed to leave
the track and float in the air as boat
floats or feather flies. One distributor
preparing supper. He was cooking
tomatoes and had opened a can of con-
densed milk. A shower of letters precipi-
tated itself in the corner where he was at
work and twenty-four hours later two
discoveries enriched popular science. One
was that condensed milk will stick letters
together like glue. The other was that