The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-11-18
SCENES WERE HORRIBLE
UNDERTAKERS FIGHTING FOR THE
 POSSESSION OF BODIES.


 Disaster Rush About the Town-state-
 ment of the Motorman of the Car
 Brother of One Girl Painted.
 Cleveland, Nov. 17.-At 7:15 o'clock last evening one of the cars of the ! Cleveland Electric Railroad company, running between the south side and the center of the city,ran through the draw bridge of the Central Viaduct. long \ iron structure, connecting the business part of the city with one of the hand some residence districts. A score Of persons are known to be dead
 The Central Viaduct is a structure of | iron nearly half a mile long. It crosses a the Cuyahoga river 101 feet above the surface of the water.
 A drawbridge spans the water and it < is guarded by a safety switch which \ derails the car in time of danger. To < be started again the switch must be H turned by the conductor of the car Details as to the accident are confus- ed, but it is reported that the conduc- $ tor of the car alighted and raised the 4 lever that swung the safety switch so as to give the car passage over the x drawbridge.
 At that time the draw was open to admit the passing of a vessel down the river.
 The motorman turned on the electric current, and the car went ahead at it's usual speed and plunged from the end of the trestle to the water. The car carried with it both motorman and con- ductor.
 It is said that about thirty y-five pas sengers were in the car. The river is about eighteen feet deep at that place, and it is not known positively whether any escaped death.
 } The patrol wagons and ambulances were promptly called and went to work at the scene of the disaster.
 Up to 6 o'clock tonight the bodies of fifteen victims of last nights catastro- phe had been recovered, This accounts for all but four of the passengers { known to have been on the car at the time it made it's plunge from the oper Central Viaduct draw into the Cayu- hoga river
 The verified list of the dead and miss { ing is as follows:
 Dead-James McLauchlin, baseball player Henry w. Mecklenberg, Ed ward Hoffman, conductor of the ill fat ed car; Mrs. John A. Saurenheimer, Miss Bessie Davis, school teacher; Harry w. Foster, Mrs. Minnie c. Brown, Curt Lopenhoe or Clemens, pianist; Mrs. A. A. Hoffman, Gertie Hoffman, three years old; Harvey Hoff- man, seven years old; Mrs. Martha Palmer, Marie Mottgen, Augusta Sarin- ski, Louis Hueltz mail carrier. Mssing-Lottie Voth Martha Sauern- 1leimer, B. c. Page, Matthew Gallagher.
 This morning August Rogers, the motorman in charge of the car, was ar rested at his home and brought to the central station, where he was question ed by the coroner and police officials. I He stated that Conductor Hoffman gave him the signal to go ahead. Asked as to how the conductor could have given the "all right signal in the face of the fact that the red light signal, showing that the draw was open, was hung on to the closed bridge gates, Rogers replied that Hoffman probably thought the draw was just closing in- stead of opening. Rogers was released after giving bonds for $500. Rogers in an interview said
 q stopped at the derailing switch, as l always do. I saw the conductor go ahead. I watched him and he gave me the signal to come on. I did as di- rected, gave the motor one notch, as I saw no red lights, and necessarily ev- evrything was all right. As I struck the gates some one yelled jump" I turned off the power as much as possi- ble and jumped. After the car plunged into the river I ran down the bridge to the Haymarket in order to notify the police and then went to the docks and helped. l was arrested at my home and did not know the police were after me'
 Five thousand spectators gathered at the scene of the accident this morning. A diver was employed by the street car company to assist in the search, and after he had been at work for two hours on the river bottom the body of Mail Carrier Louis Hueltz was brought to the surface. Hueltz's brother had stood on the dock all night, peering anxiously through the darkness and inquiring again and again if his broth CT had been found. When the body of Louis was brought up the brother be- came wild with grief. The top of Louis head was almost torn off, and the face was battered in a fearful manner.
 About ten o'clock the diver came to the surface with handful of woman's hair. He said a body was held down by the trucks and that in trying to pull it out he pulled the hair out The body is thought to be that of Miss Martha Saurenheimer. The friends and rela- tives of Miss Saurenheimer walked up and down the dock wringing their hands and crying most of the morn ing. The unfortunate girls father be- came so desperate that it became nec- essary to take him away. It was fear ed at one time that he contemplated jumping into the river. It may take a day or two to raise the trucks, but until they are brought up nothing can be done About 10:30 a riverman reported to the police that the body of a little girl was floating under the Big Four bridge at South Water street. The body was lodged against the piles and was frightfully mangled. The hair was clotted with blood and the face was