Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1897-10-29
DEATH IN THE DARK
NINETEEN PERSONS KILLED IN NEW
YORK CENTRAL WRECK.

SIX clock the Buffalo special on the
New Ork Central q Hudson River rail
road, bound southwark, was wrecked by
defective road bed near Garrison. n.
\. The engine and four or five coaches
plunged into the Hudson river and nine
teen people lost their lives. The best
account of the wreck will be found i'm
the story of Capt. Rogers Of the tug
boat "Senator Chase, who was passing
up the river on his boat at the time and
who saw the wreck and helped rescue
the survivors.
The Senator d. c. Chase was steaming
up light, without a tow.
1.-The river, said Captain Rogers, ''was
smooth and quiet. Everything was still
as still could lie. The fog that had kept
me on watch all night was just beginning
to raise, and in the gray could make
out my bearings. Suddenly. where the
mist still covered the shore, there came
tremendous sound, as if the biggest
anchor chain that ever was were roaring
out of the hawsepipes Of an iron ship
right alongside. But it was so loud that
the noise, that stopped as quick as it
started, filled the river and echoed from
the other shore.
1.-Two craft got together thinks | az
quick as that, and yanked the bell TO
stop her And then | heard a terrible
wailing sound creep over the water. And
the fog rose, and there, 800 feet away,
| saw it.
There was where Kaufman was
smart. yelled through the tube to the
engine room, and before | rightly knew
whether he'd heard or not he was on
deck and had the lifeboat over on the
run.
The things we made out first were
two big cars tilted in fifteen feet of
water along the smashed sea wall. One
was about one-thrd of the way, the
other ABOUT quarter of the way out of
the river, and slowly topping over more
and more. Inside of those two cars there
were terrible noises. As we ran the
bOats nose up against the sliding car to
keep it from rolling under we could hear
every now and then between mems
shouts for help the screaming of two
women and something that sounded like
the crying of little baby. The car we
were up against was the NiObe. just as
we got to her two men climbed out on
the top of the car that was lying deeper
still, the Hermes. They were cut and
blood was all over them. Inside of the
car people were hammering on the roof,
and it wasn't long before we had hole
chopped in her. Then we got out seven,
Just in time before the wreck settled
lower, and we got one out of the seventh
car that was in the water.
"Then man llOated up to the surface,
with awful yells, like an animal. He
struck out, crazy, with one arm, and it
was dreadful to see, because the water
was all bubbling with blood, and he
went around in circle. with one coat
sleeve trailing behind him. That was
the man whose arm had been torn of.
1
worked him far enough in shore so he
could be hauled UP. As soon as they
touched him his head fell back, and he
said: oh, God. I'm done. He died IN
half an hour.
"All this time we were holding the
car while men worked AT her, wild to
get people out. She was topheavy. ana
it was all the tug could do TO brace her.
We couldn't push too hard for fear OF
smashing her, and when She was clear
finally, and we backed away, she hurtled
into the river.
I'VE had worked on those two ears
about half an hour. just as we got
through, out in the deep water, some
thing big and brown came up like the
back of hippopotamus. Then another
bobbed up Just in front of it. The con-
ductor yelled TO me from shore: Cap
tain, hurry and get those two cars,
They're full of people For Gods sake,
bring them in quick,
I'VE steamed after them. They were
about POO feet out, and drifting away
fast. They were the first two cars of the
train, and had gone plumb TO the bOttum,
coming up only after they broke from
their trucks. We made fast quick and
chopped hole in the roof of one, but we
couldn't do anything because she was
chOcklull with smashed wood. and The
water was clear to the roof. She was Ike
nothing in the world except rat-Trap
turned upside down. Those cars were
full of dead people. They never had a
chance for their lives. We tOWed them
to shore and made them fast to rree-
one of the cars, they said, was full of
valuables.
The NiObe caught fire on the side that
was out of the water while we were hold
ing her. We smashed the windows and
got our hose in. Soon she began to burn
again, on the opposite end. We cut the
gas pipes and put out the fire second
time. When she finally topped into the
river she ripped up the rails for about
forty feet, and she would have yanked
the two cars that were still on shore
after her if we hadn't held her long
enough for an engine to couple to them
and hold them.
"Everybody was cool and brave. One
of the porters had an ugly cut-a deep
one it was, | tell yOu-frOm his eye to
his chin, and the blood Just soaked his
clothes. But he worked like a major.
And the conductor knew his business.
He kept his senses and managed the work
right. The survivors did well, too. There
wasn't any funking anywhere. We ran
out to the Cornell line boat Oswego that
was passing up. and they gave us big
yawl and two men on the Jump.
1T was 10 a. IN. by my watch when
we got our nose up against the NiObe.
At Sis, after leaving all our blankets
and life lines with the workers at the
wreck, we went on about our business.
Two hours-and think OF all that hap
pened in that short time | will never
forget the poor Cinnamon, with their
faces and bodies so cut and torn and