The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-07-31
Railway Accident, Horrible in It's
Details and Sickening in
Results.

utterly demolished.
What remained of the third car was
tumbled into a ditch at the roadside.
The responsibility for the accident
cannot now be fixed.
The story of n Victim.
Charles c. Rynick of Bridgeton, who
was on the excursion train, was in one
of the rear cars. He escaped with
several bruises, and so far as his agi-
tation would permit told the story of
his experience.
When we saw that a collision was
unavoidable" he said, the scene in
our car was terrible. Women tainted
and men rushed in mad panic before
the door. But it came almost before
we knew it. The third car was cut
right in two and the lower portion of
it lifted bodily from the track and
tumbled over. Every car was crowded
and it is horrible to think of the num-
hers who must be lying under those
ruins. The roof of one of the cars
buried under it. 1t simply dropped in
on the people. l know many of those
aboard. but l would hope for the best.
know positively of two in our car
who were killed. They were Mr.. and
Mrs. Frank Bell of Bridgeton. Their
daughter was in another car further
back and was not hurt. 1 do not know
who is to blame. When we were about
two miles from Atlantic City we came
to a stop out in the meadows and
stayed there for several minutes, but
do not know why. 1 think there
must have been fully eighty or hun
dred killed. The only person with me
was my 6-year-old boy and he was
not hurt thank Cod
Under Star-Lit Sky.
An Associated Press reporter was on
one of the first relief trains sent out
by the Pennsylvania railroad, and he
was the first newspaper reporter on
the scene.
The train was in charge OF a number
of railroad officials and Prosecutor
Perry Of Atlantic county.
1t drew up in the darkness few feet
from the fatal point.
The scene was wildly picturesque.
canopied by a star-lit sky with a
blood-red moon, almost at the full
shining in the far background, and
the brilliant maze of lights glimmering
from the city beyond.
Staggering in and out of bitches and
stumbling over masses of broken tim
Der. with only a few fitful lanterns to
gang set bravely at work.
Axes and shovels were piled with
the greatest vigor and almost at every
half dozen strokes a mangled form
was brought up and laid tenderly on
the waiting pallets.
It was a gigantic and sickening task
and. the strongest of men turned aside
faint from revelation of the work
of the spades.
A heap of blood-stained timbers
turned aside by one of the rescuers
had been wrenched off almost by the
roots, and nothing remained but a
dripping stump Even the hand was
gone. 1t has been clad in a dainty
white linen glove, the sleeve of which
still chung to it
A Human Heart.
Not five minutes later chance blow
from a pick revealed a still more
ghastly remnant-a human heart that
only a few short hours before had
been throbbing with life and love.
One woman whose body was recov-
cred still held in her hand plate
bearing a picture of Atlantic City. 1t
was unbroken.
Scattered about together near the
wreck were many pieces of clothing
which had been torn from the bodies
of the victims-hats, dainty parasols,
fans and gloves.
Just as one of the relief trains
reached the Pennsylvania depot with
its terrible load. one man who lay
for a moment, and claSping his hand
to his head, cried in heartrending
agony:
''Who did this? My Cod where are
my wife and children?"
A late report says that fourteen of
the injured have since died at the
sanitarium.
Merely Guess.
Superintendent 1. N. sweigard of the
Philadelphia G. Reading company
places the number of dead at thirty
seven and the injured at about the
same number. He sent a telegram to
Philadelphia this evening which said:
There were thirty-seven persons
killed as follows: Twelve women,
twenty-one men, two boys and two
girls; about the same number injured"
Just where Mr.. Sweigard obtained his
information cannot be learned, as it
will be impossible to give the correct
number or even an approximate esti-
mate of the dead until the debris is
removed.
This will consume several hours.
Work is still progressing and the
rescuers will. remain at work until
the last body is taken from the
wreckage
Seventeen unidentified. four men
and a female child. all dead, were
broughE to the excursion house after
midnight. Fireman Kelly, of the Read
ing train, was fatally injured.
1t is said that the Reading signal
was displayed and the whistle for the
train was sounded. The Reading has
the right of way at the crossing
The excursion train bore five tribes
OF the Order of Red Men, the Bridge
ton, the Niagara, the Iowa and the
Ahwantenah and the Coharsick. with
their wives and children.
The ringing of the fire bells gave
the Atlantic Cuty public the first in
timation they received of the disaster.
The utmost excitement prevailed. The
board walk was deserted and the
crowds that surged about the two rail
road stations rendered the streets in
those sections almost impossible. Mrs.
Edward Farr, wife of the Reading en-
Sineer who was killed, when informed
OF her husbands tragic end, threw up
her hands with frantic shrek and
fell dead at the feet OF her informant
THE KNOWN DEAD ARE:
P. S. Murphy. Millville.
]. D. Johnston, Bridgeton.
Charles D. Bonnoughas, Bridgeton.
G. b. Taylor, no address.
F. H. Goldsno'-A-> Bridgeton