Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1897-07-01
A TERRIBLE WRECK;
SEVEN KILLED AND THIRTY
INJURED ON WABASH.
Fast Express Train Goes Through .
TrestIo and Into = Raging Torrent
Near Missouri city, NO. Five Postal
Clerks Knlod-SoonS at the Wreck


ing near Missouri City resulted II
seven deaths. 1t is practically certain
that this is all the loss of life, unles
some Of those injured, but not fatally
as now believed, should die. The lis
of injured numbers about thirty, bu
only ten were badly hurt The fol
lowing are the dead:
Edward Grindrod of St Louis, bag
gageman.
o. NJ Smith of St Louis, posta'
clerk.
Frank W. Brink of st. Louis, postal
clerk.
W. s. Mills of ST. Louis, postal clerk,
Gus Smith of st. Louis, postal clerk.
Saul Winters of St. Louis, postal
clerk.
Charles Greasley of st. Louis, brake
man.
Conductor Copeland was taken from
the wreck unconscious. Soon after 1t
was believed the vital spark had fed
and the body was tenderly laid out
Luckily, when the physicians and sur
geons arrived from Moberly, an ex-
animation Of the supposed dead body
showed that life was not extinct, and
Mr.. Copeland finally was restored to
consciousness. The chances for his re-
covery are thought to be fair, al
though he is badly injured internally.
He is now in the Wabash hospital at
Moberly.
The New York fast mail and ex-
press train ON the Wabash railway,
which left the Union depot at $50
o'clock Saturday night, went through
a bridge a mile and a half west Of
Missouri City, twenty-one miles from
Kansas City, shortly after o'clock.
The train was we'll filed with pas
sengers and carried one more car than
usual. As the train crossed the Han
nibal bridge the rain began to fall
heavily and the lightning was inces-
SAINT In Its play At Randolph the
water poured down from the heavens
I'm torrents and at Liberty Landing it
was almost like clOudburst. The
train had been running about forty
miles an hour, but the engineer cut
down the speed to about twenty miles
as precaution.
About twenty miles from Kansas
City the track crosses a creek on q
trestle work fifteen feet high. The
trestle work is about eighty feet long
and the creek beneath it is dry except
in wet weather. The water rushed
through it like mill race. 1t carried
away wagon bridge short distance
above the trestle and dashed It's tim
bers against the wooden supports of
the trestle. Many of them were
snapped of like pipe stems, and when
the Wabash fast express came along,
the iron rails, which cleaned in the
flashes Of lightning, were held up by
very fiimsy supports.
The speed Of the engine carried it
across before the crash came. The
tender broke loose and fell back into
the stream and the baggage car, mail
car, chair car and sleeper followed,
one after another. The cars were
piled up in confusion and the baggage
and mail cars were smashed into
Bplinters The passengers we're thrown
from their seats. and in a moment
those who survived were struggling to
cxtricate themselves from the wreck
age.
The engine, which had so miracu-
lously passed over the undermined
trcstle, stopped on the other side. The
engineer saw that the train had met
with terrible disaStsr and, pulling
open the throttle, he sped on to Mis-
souri, City for assistance.
Just as the crash came there was n
vivid fash OF lightning, followed by a
terrific crash of thunder The tender
of the engine fell back into the abyss
slowly. The baggage, mail and smok-
ing cars telescoped with crash and in
o moment were kindling wood The
chair car was hurled on top of the
other cars and rested with it's rear end
in the stream at an angle OF as de.
gree. The sleeping car rested with its
forward end on the chair car and Its
rear end on the end of the trestlc. No
one in the sleeping car was more than
slightly injured and no one in the
chair car was killed. although several
we're badly injured.
The mail car was next to the engine
and OF the five postal clerks at work
there not one escaped alive. Those
killed were d. A. Smith, o. NJ. Smith
+. w. Brink, Charles Winters and W.
Z. Mills The mail car was crushed
and pounded to pieces by the heavy
cars behind it and the postal clarlss
had no chance to escape. The slaugh
ter in this car was pitiable, but it /.
almost invariably the fate which over
takes mail clerks when there is
wreck.
A boy living near the creek saw the
wagon bridge carried away and The
trestle undermined. lie knew tn,
passenger train was due aud he started
up the track to stop the train. H.
had gone only short distance whel
the train came along and his cries an,
the frantic waves of his arms came to-
late 10 save it from destruction.
WeyloF Wants More Men.
JACKsoNvnLE, Fla, June 9s-Wey