The Monticellonian., 1895-11-22
AWFUL CATASTROPHE.
Frightful Plunge Of a Motor Gar
 Through a Draw.
One Hundred and Twenty Feet Through Space Into the River Below--Tifteen Persons Make the Plunge and All
 but Two Perish In the Fall.

Persons Make the Plunge and All
 but Two Perish In the Fall.
 CLEVELAND, O., Nov. 1s.-A fright ful accident which occurred here last evening, suddenly threw number of South side families into mourning, and it was all due to the criminal and still nneN9.Hinable carelessness of a street-car conductor The careless ness of the conductor will, however, never be explained, for he is among the victims of the catastrophe. Nfne- teen lives were lost and some of those plunge into that dark abyss of 120 feet assert that the motornan, as well as the conductor, was responsible.
 The accident occurred at 1885 o'clock at the draw of the Central viadHet, a long stone-and-iron structure which crosses a valley and the Cuyahoga river and connects Jennings avenue or the south side and Central avenue on the east. The bridge Is 120 feet above the river and a draw is immdi- ntely above it to admit the passage of tall .masted vessels.
 The draw was open for tug draw ing schooner which was about to pass beneath the bridge. As usual the gates were closed on both sides of the draw and the danger lights of red were displayed to guard against just such accidents as occurred last night. An electric car was seen coming along from the east towards the south side. but Capt Charles Brennan. who had charge of the bridge, had no thought of danger, as the usual precautions had been observed. The car was one of the Cedar and Jennings avenue branch of the Big Consolidated line and had fifteen passengers, a conductor and motorman aboard.
 At what is known as the derailing switch. some 200 feet from the draw, the conductor mechanically al lighted, as is the wont of all the conductors at this point to see if all was right and whether the coast was clear. The car, as all cars do, came to a sudden standstill, and the motorman waited for orders. The conductor, for some unaceountable reason, failed to see the red signal of danger an the closed gates, or perhaps custom made him careless, and he signaled to the motor- man, named Rogers, to came ahead. The motorman turned on the electric fluid, the conductor jumped aboard the car, which at considerable speed went rolling toward the draw.
 Why the motorman did not see the danger lights or the closed gates sooner than he did will perhaps always remain d mystery. but the fact remains that he did not Nearer and nearer came the ear to that awful abyss and few feet from the draw it first dawned upon the motorman that the draw was open. He made eXtranrli- nary efforts to turn off the current, but it was Of no avail. The bridge captain shouted like one possessed and screamed incoherently, but there was nothing left for him to do.
 The motorman, realizing his own danger, forsook the precious freight of men, women and children entrusted to his care, leaped off the front plat form just as the car was nearing the draw, ran down the viaduct in the di- reetion of Central avenue and disap- peared in the darkness.
 At the same instant two male pas sengers jumped off the car platform and escaped death as if by miracle, for the car had already crashed into the closed iron gate. The conductor, too, tried to escape, but it was useless. second after the immense motor had crashed through the gate it reeled be- fore that awful space of 12O feet, Steadied for a moment and with a ter rife speed was hurled downward.
 Those who witnessed the accident say that they heard one agonizing cho- rus of screams, and in an instant all was quiet as death. The ear struck upon a projection of piles in the abut- ment beneath the draw, then turning and breaking into pieces, it leaped into the dark river below. breaking the towline between the tug and tho schooner that was passing beneath the draw.
 moment after the car struck the river a few suppressed groans were heard by the men who happened to be on the docks below and then all was over. Men from the bridge above and from the docks yelled to the men on the tug to pick up the people, but thirteen lives was sacrificed, only two passengers, one man and one woman, being taken out alive.
 Inside of twenty minutes a freboat, six ambulances, six dead wagon and a squad of policemen were on the scene. The injured man and woman were at once taken to the hospital, but it took many hours of hard and patient toll to eXtricate the thirteen bodies from the wrecl1age of the car in the river. One by one the bodies were taken to under- taking establishments spread over every part of the city, for this city is without d morgue, and the work of Identification was extremely slow.
 Late at night when the south sid residents heard of the catastrophe ant. when they began to realize that their loved ones had not yet returned home, the undertaking establishments were visited, where one after another the bodies were identified.
 Fhe scenes were heartrending in the extreme.
 PANIC IN A CHURCH