The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-07-31
Nearly 100 Persons Are Killed
or Injured.
SCENES ARE SICKENING
Arms and Legs We're Torn From
Their Sockets.
A Woman w hen Told of Her Hus-
bands Death Drops Dead.

Just outside of this city and as result
about 100 persons are either killed or
injured.
The Reading railroad express which
| left Philadelphia at $40 last evening
/ for Atlantic City crashed into a Penn
sylvania railroad excursion train at a
| signal tower about four miles out from
/ here. The Pennsylvania train was run
/ ming to BridgetOn with q party OF eX-
| curSiOnistS from that place, Millevtle,
and neighbOring towns 1t was loaded
| with passengers and a rough estimate
| of killed and injured places the number
( a hundred.
| At this signal tower, the tracks of the
| two roads diagOnaly cross. The Read
| ing train was given the signal to stop,
/ but it either failed to work OF the speed
/ of the express was too great to be
| checked in time. 1t caught the eXcur-
! sion train broadside and plOughed
| through, literally cleaving it in twain
| The engine of the Reading train was
| shattered to pieces. Every car on the
| excursion was damned to it's fullest ca
! pacity
| As soon as the news reached Allan
| tic City, the utmost CONSERVATION pre-
! vailed but the authorities were equal to
| the emergency. Relief trains were dis
/ patched to the scene, loaded with cots
and bearing STATS of surgeons. AS
quick as the bodies were reached they
! were carried into the local hospitals
! and undertake s shops. A general fire
: alarm was sounded and the department
! promptly responded and aided in the
| heartrepdering work of digging for the
| victims. Fear grew into despair and
/ horror as the vigorous work of the re-
! lief gangs revealed the awful extent of
/ the disaster The first Reading relief
| train bore into this city q mangled
| cOrpSes of men, women and children.
[ The next train. not an hour later car
ried Is of the MANNED and wounded, and
| two Of them died soon after reaching
! the city.
AS train after train piled to the
! scene OF the wreck and came back with
| its CHASTITY load to the sanitarium which
/ does duty as the city hospital its ca
pacity was overtaXed. Meanwhile 9TH
ers of the dead and injured were taken
| to private hospitals at Ocean and Pa
| cifc avenues. Edward Farr. engineer
| on the Reading train was killed out
| right was another railroad man who
rode on the engine with him. This man
/ whose name has not yet been learned,
| saw the collision coming and leaped
/ from the cab an instant before the
| crash Almost a t the same instant the
! engine cut its way through and caught
! him directly in its path. His body and
that of Farr were found under heap
| of debris but the engineer lay in what
| remained of the cab and his right hand
| still clasped the throttle. He had been
| faithful unto death and met it at his
post.
The fireman on that train Ieaped q
| few seconds before and escaped with
| trif1ing injuries. The excursion train
| was made up of Is cars, the foremost of
| which was a baggage car This and
| force of the crash and were utterly de-
| mOhshed. The third was tumbled in a
ditch at the roadside. The responsible
1ty for the accident cannot be fixed.
! ChaS. c. Rynick of Bridgeton, who was
| in the excursion party was in one of
| the rear cars. He escaped with several
| bruises and SO far as his agitation
| would permit told the story of his ex-
perience.
When we saw that a collision was
| unavoidable" he said the scene in
I Terrible fai
| and men rushed in mad panic before
| the door But it came almost before
| We knew it. The third car was cut in
| two and the lower portion of it lifted
| bodily from the track and turnbled
| over. Every car was crowded and it is
| horrible to think of the numbers who
must be lying under those ruins. The
| roof of one of the cars fell in and every
( one in that car was buried under it It
simply dropped in on the people.
| know many of those aboard but will
hope for the best
An Associated Press reporter was on
| ore 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 Prose
cutOr Perry of Atlantic county Stag
gering in and out of bitches and stumb-
ling over masses of broken timber. with
| only a few ftfuI lanterns to help their
| bravely to work Axes and shOvels
| were placed with the greatest v1gor and
| almost at every half dozen strokes a
! mangled form was brought up and laid
! tenderly on the waiting pallets. 1t was
/ q gigantic and sickening task and the
! strongest of men turned aside faint
| from a revelation of the work for
| spades.
A heap of blood stained tirnbers turn
| ed aside by one Of the rescuers brought
| to sight a woman's arm. 1t had been
| Wrenched off almost by the roots and
| nothing remained but dripping stump
and the hand was gone. It had been
! clad in a dainty white linen glove, the
| sleeve of which still chung to it. Not
| five minutes later, a chance blow from
! a pick revealed a still more CHASTITY
! remnant, a human heart that only a few
| short hours before had been throbbing
| with life and love. One woman whose
| body was recovered still held in her
! dead hand a plate bearing a picture of
| Atlantic City.
1t was unbrozen. Scattered about
| the ground 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 reach
ed the Pennsylvania depot with its
| terrible load, one man who lay in
corner horribly injured, regafned his
senses for moment. and clasping his
I hand to his head, cried in heart rend-
ing agony:
who did this? My God, where are
my wife and children?''
A later report states that IA of the in
jured have since died at the sanitari-
UNI. superintendent I. n. Sweigad of
the Philadelphia and Reading company
| places the number of dead at 81 and
/ the injured about the same number. He
sent a telegram to Philadelphia last
! evening which said:
There were 81 persons killed as fol-
| lows: Twelve women, q men, 2 boys.