The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-08-01
Sickenfn- Scenes.


gaiety which will mark this resort
from now until the end of the season
will be but a faint echo of the days
past. On every street corner and no
tel piazza trembling lips discuss last
nights fearful catastrophe, and addi-
tional details were reported by the
break of day this morning.
The list Of dead as revised number
forty-three. and the injured as far as
known number forty-three.
The rescuers continued work
throughout the night, but no more
bodies were found. Engineer Edward
Farr, who died with his hand on the
morning. 1t was with difficulty the
rigid fingers were unclasped from the
lever His head and face were I'M
touched and his eyes looked skyward
with a gentle gaze. He had been
pinned down by the chest. Every bone
in the body of one victim was broken.
Many were frightfully mangled and
beyond recognition.
BY O'Clock this morning the greater
part of the debris had been cleared
away and it is thought all bodies had
been recovered. Ranged along either
side Of a. stagnanI pool, which marks
the scene, were stacked in little heaps,
hats. caps, gloves and other articles
of clothing found on the ground of
the pitiful and momentous disaster.
From early morning excursion parties
from this city We're travelling to
THE SCENE OF THE WRECK.
Women seemed to revolt at the hor-
rors of the situation, but were disap-
pointed at not seeing the mangled
corpses.
The coroner empanelled a jury this
morning to inquire INFO the cause of
the accident The arrest of William
ThurSton, the telegraph operator at
the signal tower, confirms the theory
that a mistake in the display OF sig
nails was the cause Of the accident.
However, the arrest may have been
merely a Formally. The West Jersey
train was a special excursion train
carrying seven coaches filed with eX-
curs6onists from Bridgetol, Salem and
nedghboring villages of south Jersey.
1t was the excursion of the Improved
Order of Red Men, and five tribes were
well represented. The first car on the
Reading train and second on the West
Jersey were upset. The third car on
the latter caught the full force of tine
ir7pact and was literally cut in half,
and each half reduced to splinters.
When it is remembered that this car,
as well as every other, was damned
with human freight, the horror of the
situation can be realized.
THE SIGHT OF THE SEARCHERS
for the dead working among the wreck
age last night was a, most terrible one
in the Pickering light of the huge bon
fires which shot sheets of yellow
flames into the night. The gang of
men went crawling over the debris.
hacking at the cars with axes, strain
ing to raise heavy timbers with crow
bars and peering by the light of their
lanterns into the heap of wreck. A
great part of their work had to be
carried on In the midst OF miry ground
and often as they labored they step
ned from a wet board and fell into
the foul mud of the meadow land. But
still clambering over uncertain pas
Ssgeways and clinging to piles Of
wreckage, and risking their necks ON
slippery timbers, they worked stead
ill., on to find the bodies OF the injured
and dead Every now and then as a
number of lanterns clustered around
one spot in the fire light, the specta-
tors could see the grimy, sweating
workingrmen straining on their crow
bars or swinging their axes into splin-
tered wood, and then one OF two
would stop, lower their lanterns and
work with their hands while their
comrades stopped, leaned to their tools
and drew out
A BLACK SHAPELESS MASS.
Sometimes it was a man, sometimes a,
child and sometimes a woman whose
long hair, broken loose, hung in strings
and tangles from her head. Then the
cry would go up chief" and the men
would carry their g1uesome burden, its
face covered with a bloody handker-
chief, through the crowd.
Chief Of Police E]dred-e, who looked
at the body, gave orders for its dispo-
sition. Then it was carried to where
the corpses lay and the men looked.
with their lanterns, like great flies
floating about the ruins. While this
was going on the crowd was lined
seven or eight deep around the splin-
tered cars and interfered considerably
with the gang of laborers.
Word had been sent Immediately on
the occurrence of the accident to the
city for police today and the patrol ap-
peared almost as soon as the vanguard
of the crowd. They took charge of the
entire affair. but notwithstanding the
excellent management, the
CROWDS PERSISTED IN PUSHING
through the watchmen. The use of
commands and even Of clubs was