Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1897-09-23
TRAINS COLLIDE.
A Rock Island and a Union Pacific
Crash Together.
4 NINE DISASTER IN ALABAMA.
The C0Iliery ut. Belle Ellen Catches Fire
and Five Miners Are Thought to BE
Lost-Fl0Od In Western
Texas.

destructive head.end collision between
q Rock Island westbound passenger
train and an eastbound Union Pacific
stock trai n took place two miles west
OF Muncie, and Is niles west OF Kan
sas City, at $3.50 yesterday evening.
Both trains were running at high
rate Of speed, and came together with
terrible force. Both engineers and
6remen jumped and escaped with few
injuries. Both engines were COM
pletely wrecked. A great deal Of
damage was done TO the contents Of
the freight cars. The baggage car
was badly smashed. The Rock Island
passenger train should have left Kan
sas City at s:l5, but It pulled out %
minutes late. Conductor Libbey was
in charge, and Engineer Charles
Goodell pulled it with engine 9O2. They
got orders, so it is claimed, at the
Junction. small office in Kansas City,
Kan, to meet the stock train at Mum
Gle, and it is said they violated the
orders. The only passengers injured
were Mrs Minnie Wood, of Kensing-
ton, Kan, who received severe internal
injuries, and Mrs. D. P. Thompson, of
Mankato, Kan. Both were sent back
to Kansas City. The Rock Island train
was pulled back to Kansas City and
sent over the Santa Fe. All of the
freight train that could be moved was
pulled back to Topeka. Wrecking
crews from Kansas City and Junction
City were ordered out, and will clear
away the wreck. There were II cars
Of live stock on the freight train. They
are piled up in awful confusion. The
front postal car was completely
wrecked. C. NJ. Webb, postal clerk,
jumped and was painfully injured
about the head and shoulders. E. L.
Bales and Richard Newly, postal
clerks, were also severely bruised.
receiving a bad scalp wound
A NINE DISASTER IN ALABAMA.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala, Sept. 2l.-About
two hours after the men went TO work
in mine No. OF the Bessemer Land &
Improvement Co.'S coal mine, ut Belle
Ellen, near Blockton, Bib county,
yesterday morning. fire was discovered
far down in the main slope. About 100
men were employed in the mine, and ut
once an alarm was given. A panic fol-
lowed among the workers, and in the
little town Of Belle Ellen. Hundreds
Of men, women and children gathered
at the main entrance Of the smoking
mine, while rescue parties were at once
formed to relieve the miners More than
so were gotten out from the various
entrances without harm. Others were
overcome by smoke and fell by the
wayside. These the brave searchers
found and dragged out, while those
waiting at the entrance restored life
to their unconscious friends Five
men who were working about the
slope beyond where the fire originated
could not be reached and it is regard
ed as certain that they are dead. The
fire is thought to have originated from
an over-heated steam pipe, which ig-
nited gas in the mine.
FLOOD IN WESTERN TEXAS.
Ell PAso, Tex, Sept. sl.-Sunday
night the people Of Ahumada, about so
miles south Of this city, were visited
by the worst flood that ever happened
in the history Of the state. Men,
women and children were driven from
their beds and had to take refuge on
the high ground with their household
effects. There was not a place to
shelter them; many houses in town
are wrecked and tumbled in great
heaps, and many more are expected to
collapse at any moment. The water
stands four and five feet in the houses,
the country is flooded for miles around
and the river has overhowed its banks.