The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1897-07-01
THE MISSOURI CITY WRECK
COMPLETE LIST OF DEAD NUM-
BEERS SEVEN, FIVE OF THEM
POSTAL CLERKS.
TWENTY Others were INJURED
Conductor Copeland, Laid out Tor
Dead, Showed Signs of Life
and Has a Chance to Re-
cOyer-List of Dead.

Kansas City, June 27.-Seven collins
were forwarded to st. Louis from Mis-
souri, City today. They contained the re-
mains of the victims of last nights
wreck on the Wabash road. A corrected
list of the dead is as follows:
Thomas Mills, postal clerk, St. Louis
o. H. Smith, postal clerk, st. Louis.
Gustave Smith, postal clerk, st. Louis.
Charles Winters, postal clerk, St Louis.
+. w. Brink, postal clerk. st. Louis.
Edward Grindrob, baggage master, st.
Louis.
Charles p Grostley, brakeman, st.
Louis.
The conductor OF the train, G. @. Cope
land, of st. Louis, who was reported last
night among the Dead is still alive. He
was removed this morning to the railway
hospital at Moberly, with a fractured
skull and several broken ribs. He fingers
between life and death, but the surgeon
expresses a hope that he will recover.
Conductor Copeland was supposed to be
dead when taken from the wreck, and
his body, with handkerchief drawn
over the face, was ranged in a row with
the seven dead bodies. A few minutes
later some one observed sign of life
and he was quickly transferred to
stretcher and given every possible atten-
ton. OF the nineteen other injured no
one is in critical condition.
Death probably came to at least four
of the five unfortunate mail clerks almost
instantly. Their car pitched head first
through the break in the trestle, and
they must have been drowned while I'M
conscious. The remains of the four
were carried from the wreck and were
stream. There were signs of life in the
body of the fifth mail clerk when res
cued, but he died in a few minutes.
A farmer noticed the perilous condition
of the trestle and tried to flag the train,
but owing to the ferceness of the storm
the engineer evidently could not see the
signal which the farmer so frantically
waved across the track. The locomotive
struck the trestle and moment later the
disaster was presented in all its horrors.
The engine passed over, but the tender
went through with the tumbling bridge.
The baggage car toppled over on its side
while the mail car. which followed,
pitched into the stream end first. Every
life in this car was lost. The smoker,
next behind, followed. 1t was in this
car that Conductor Copeland was riding.
The other occupants escaped serious in
jury. The chair car, next behind, also
plunged into the mass of wreckage and
all its passengers were thrown to the
forward end IN an lndeScrlbable neap.
How they escaped with no serious in
juries is a mystery. The front end of
the sleeper, next in the rear, damned
into the protruding end of the chair car
and was thus prevented from following
the others into the chasm. The two
Excelsior Springs coaches in the rear re-
manned on the track.
The wreckage has been cleared away.
the bridge repaired, and tonight all
trains are moving as usual.
The postal authorities report that prob
ably nearly all of the mail carried on the
train was lost or destroyed. The mail
pouches are supposed to nave been open
at the time of the wreck. The car was
so broken and >splintered that most of the
mail tioated off, probably TO drift into
the Missouri river and be lost. The Wa
bash train each evening carries all of
Kansas City's mail for the east and it
is always heavy and valuable.