Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1895-03-02

the rails and the edge of the chasm, and
then plunged downward One after an
other three of the coaches, filled with pas
sengers, dashed after it, while two others
piled up in a mass Of wreckage at the foot
of the track, but most fortunately did not
go over the edge of the precipice. As the
the fifth coach left the metals it twisted
and broke the coupling connecting it
with the coaches behind it. These coaches
kept the rails and passed safely around the
curve. After running a considerable
distance they were stopped by the hand
brakes.
When ths engine and three coaches fell
to the botteu of the ravinc there was q
fearful crash, and mingled with it were
the shrieks of the ;lffrighted passengers,
which could easily be heard above the
shrieking of the escaping steam of the en-
CINE, which was knocked to pieces by the
fall. The passengers in the derailed
coaches at the edge of the precipice got
out as quickly as possible, and many OF
them fell on their knees and Offered
thanks for their escape from most awful
death. In the meantime a number of pas
sengers in the other coaches had returned
to the scene of the wreck and devoted
themselves to the work OF rescuing those
imprisoned in the wreck.
The sight here was a most gruesome
one. The carriages were shattered and
majority of the occupants were lying be-
meath the wrcckagc. The shrieks and
means of the injured were heartrending,
willie many of the unhurt women and
children Inoaned and walled in an agony
of terror. Here and there among the
debris could be seen an upturned face the
.fxf lnae fhn
failures distorted with unknown fear
Again what had been a face could be seen
crushed out of all semblance to humanity.
Here was an arm there was a leg that had
been severed from trunk lying perhaps
fifty feet away.
Aided by some of the men who were
in the coaches that did not go over, the
| railroad employees and the relief corps
sent out from this city soon cleared away
the wreckagc sufficiently to allow the ex-
trication Of the dead and injured. One
hundred and four dead and eighty-iive
wounded were taken out of the wreck.
The injured who could stand to be moved
| were brought to the City of Mexico and
taken to the military hospital, which was
thrown open to the sufferers by orders of
President Diaz. The whole staff Of the
hospital busted themselves in attending
to the injured, who were made as COM
Portable as the circumstances would per
init.
Many of the dead will never be identi'
fled, some of them being so horribly man
gled that it is almost impossible to recog
nize the remains as those OF human beings
So far as can be learned the accident was
due to the negligence CT the engineer. II
Is stated that when the train entered the
incline he made no attempt to check its
speed by the use of the air-bI axes. Had
the brakes failed to work the momentum
| could have been checked with the hand
| brakes, but persons on the train state
that they heard no whistle for the appli
cation OF the hand brakes. The engineer
| and fireman are believed to be under the
wreck, and why the train was allowed tC
| run prac5icaiiy wils. on 9no of the mos,
| dangerous sections of the road will prob
ably never bo known.