The herald., 1896-07-13

was to wait at Logan for the fast mail
and fast freight. He started his train
out Immediately after the mail passed
and forgetting the freight. The head
end collision occurred twenty minutes
later on a curve. The heavy freight
passed partly over the passenger. All
the people killed were in the front coach
of the excursion train. All the dead
and injured were brought to Omaha
today.
THE DEAD ARRIVE. I
OMAHA, July 12.-The train which
carried the dead arrived at the Union
depot at $3.50 o'clock. 1t had been given
out that IL would not arrive until noon,
and this was responsible for the fact
that only few of the relatives ofthe
lost were there to receive their bodies.
But even then there was enough of
heart-breaking woe to touch the SYM
pathies of those who saw the pitiful
spectacle.
The police had, stretched ropes across
the platform to keep back the crowd,
and the trainmen, assisted by posse OF
police, tenderly lifted the bodies from
the train and deposited them in long,
CHASTITY row on the floor in the baggage
room. Each was covered by a. sheet,
and when the line was complete pas
sage was cleared, and those who had
friends among the dead were allowed to
pass through the improvised morgue.
One by one they passed down the line.
lifting the coverings from each bruised
and blackened face as they went along.
Some of them failed to find the face
s., 1,n,x, 1,no rte
found it but too soon, and their suffer-
ings, as they beheld the terrible GER
tainty that killed all hope, were pitiful
tosee. One father bent over sheeted
form that lay near the middle of the row.
The light that filtered through the
breathless crowd fell on the still smiling
features of his little boy. The body was
terribly crushed, but the face was un-
touched. Involuntarily he lifted the
shroud little further until the mangled
body was disclosed, and then uttered
cry of agony that brought tears to the
eyes of many an on-looker who had
gazed on death before. The fact that
several of the dead were children. added
not little to the pathos Of the scene.
At one end of the row lay the body of
Mrs. Maggie Bradley while her babe
slept between two strong mem at the
other. Finally the body of the child was
laid beside that of its mother, and they
were taken away together. The train
brought over twenty bodies altogether.
Only part of them were identified dur
ing the half-hour that they lay at the
depot, and then they were all taken
away to various undertaking establish
ments to be prepared for burial Some
of the identifications were not positive,
and in several cases one bystander
would claim to be certain that he.saw
the body of one man, while another
would be equally positive that he was
mistaken. But the bodies were so badly
mangled that it was impossible to allow
them to remain longer without atten-
tion, and in several cases they may not
be positively identified until they are
prepared for burial.
LATE DETAILS
OMAHA, Neb., July PA special to
the Bee from Logan, Iowa. says:
William Shaffer, the agent of the
Northwest at Logan, saw the excursion
train start up. He supposed at first that
the movement was for the purpose of
hurrying up any tardy members of the
party, and that the train would stop
before it left the yard and wait for the
passing of No. 3S. He was Mortified to
notice that, instead of Stacking up at
the switch, the train was rapidly taking
on more speed. He rushed down the
platform and asked an employe if the
special had pulled out, and received an
affirmative reply.
Then God help then," said Shaffer;
"they have pulled out without orders,
and No. 3S is due in a minute" But it
was too late to avert the catastrophe,
or even to attempt it. All Logan was
on the platform cheering for the excur-
sionists, and had just joined in an offer
of three cheers for Logan and her peo-
pie. The echo of the last hurrah had
not died away when the crash came.
No. 3S, with a full head of steam, one
minute behind, dashed around the curve
at forty -mile-an-hour gait, and no hu-
man power could avert the disaster.
After the collision the floor Of the
baggage car was found so tightly
wedged into the coach that all efforts to
remove it were futile, although thou
sand willing hands were Joined in the
attempt to lift the cover that was con-
cealing the dead and imprisoning the
injured in a living tomb. Finally one
ak was procured and a section of the
floor cut away. The sight revealed was
beyond the power of words to portray.
The first object to attract the attention
of the rescuers when the section of the
floor was removed was the upright body
of a man whose head had almost been
severed from the trunk So recent had
been the accident that the blood from his
wounds had hardly started to flow and
his skull, stripped of it's covering, glis-
tened like polished billiard ball. The
body of the man was drawn from the ru-
ms, and was soon identified as that of
John Kenkel, an Omaha musician, who
had been playing with the band at the
picnic.
The next bodies to be drawn from the
ruins were those of Mrs. Bradley and
baby's head was badly crushed, but she
held in her arms pretty doll that was
as unrumpled and fresh as when it came
from the toy store. 1t appeared that
the space in the car between the floor
of the coach and the floor of the baggage
car was packed with dead and dying hu-
manity. Groans and agonizing appeals
for help came from the injured, and
fl,At, t.,r,%