Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1896-12-28
TO DEATH
Made by a Train on a Railway
in Alabama.
TwENTY-0NE SENT TO ETERNITY
Belief That the Accident Was Due e
the Devil;ry Of Train
Wreckcrs.

Whole Train Goes Down 10 Feet 70 the
ROcks-COaches Take Fire and Of Those
Who Lost Their Lives Nothing IL Left
but Charred Corpses-Explosion Of Mine
Gas Kills Seven and Severely Wounds
Half q Dozen Others in the Coal Mine
at Princeton, Ind.
Memphis, Tenn, Dec. 2S.-A special to
The Commercial-Appeal from Birming-
ham, Ala. says: Fiends in human form
wrecked Birmingham Mineral passen-
ger train No. 40 at Cahaba bridge. twen-
ty-seven miles from here. at 7:5O o'clock
yesterday morning. and twenty-one lives
were lest. That number of bodies have
Deen recovered from the wreck and fur
ther search may swell the list of the
dead. The wreck is regarded as most
certainly accomplished by the removal
OF a ran on the middle span of the
trestle. This derailed the train, which
caused 1t to pull down the two spans
and precipitate it into the river. 110 feet
below. The wreck was the worst that
mas ever occurred in the state and the
survivors are SO few and SO badly hurt
that they are unable tog give any detailed
oescriptionOf how it all happened. 1t is
not known and may never be ascertain
ed just how many passengers were on
the train. Most of them were miners
and residents of mining towns in this
district who had round-trip holiday
tickets and were returning to their
al 10,
ham Mineral road.
Only Man Who Knew Is Dead.
Conductor A. p. Connell, who proba-
bly, new better than anybody else as to
how many passengers were aboard, is
dead. 1t is thought, however. that there
were not exceeding twenty-five or thir-
ty. The train consisted Of an engine. a
baggage car and two coaches. Six miles
south of Guernee is the Cahaba river. a
Shallow mountain stream which has n
depth at this time of only about three
or four feet. This river is spanned by
an iron bridge with wooden trestles on
each side. Its entire length is SEQ feet
and the length of the main span where
the wreck occurred is 10 feet. The
bridge was built only four years ago
The main span and the span just be-
yond it, both made of iron, gave way
and precipitated the entire train into
the river. The engine landed on its side
almost at right angles with the track
The cars piled upon each other through
the main span. The entire wreck took
fire soon afterward. and was rapidly
burned to the waters edge.
But Nine Escaped Alive.
Nine persons escaped alive of these
who went down. and several of them
will probably die. As soon as the crash
occurred few country people gathered
at the scene to render what aid they
could, but 1t was too late to do much.
Nine people Lad gotten out and the
others had been burned up in the
wreckage. When the relief train from
birmingham arrived there was little
need for the army OF physicians that
had gone along. The wounded were
quickly attended to and then sent to
Blocton for further attention. The work
of taking out the dead was entered
upon. Nothing was left of the wreck
age but the smouldering remains which
had burned to the waters edge Charred
corpses were packed in between the iron
framework where the seats had been.
Most of the bodies had been burned be-
yond recognition.
Horrible Condition of the Bodies,
Some had their heads burned off, and
of others nothing was left but the mere
skeleton. AS rapidly as possible the
remains wer taken out and laid in a row
on the river bank. At 4 p. m. twenty
bodies had been found, and no more
were in sight. It.is possible, however,
that there are others under the wreck
age, and also that some may be
hid by the water. OF the survivors
Sam Spencer was the only one Of the
train crew that escaped alive. He was
the colored fireman. He jumped from
the engine while it was in mid-air and
landed in the water some distance from
where the engine fell. His only injury
was 4 broken arm.
Fatal Accident to the Wreckinx Train.
Another serious wreck occurred near
Cahaba river bridge at 1 o'clock yester-
day afternoon A wrecking train which
had gone to the relief to the ill-fated
passenger train was standing on the
line when it was run into by a con-
struction train from Birmingham which
was ON its way with men and timbers
to rebuild the destroyed Cahaba river
bridge. Jim Estis. of Boyles. was fatal
ly crushed and several worknen more
or less hurt.