Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1897-07-08
AN ILl-OMENED START
CHRISTIAN ENDEAvORERS DIE
IN A WRECK.

Three Killed and Fifteen Hurt in a
Crash on the Northwestern at West
Chicago Wednesday Morning-Tre-
mendous Crush OF Travel.
Death Comes to Excursionists.
An awful rear-end collision occurred at
West Chicago, H., at 1915 Wednesday
morning. Section No. of the Christian
Endeavor excursion to San Francisco ran
into section No. f. Three were killed and
fifteen seriously hurt. Courtney, engineer
of section No. 5, was fatally injured.
Limbs and flesh of unknown people were
taken from the wreck. A tramp was
| caught between the baggage car and en-
CINE and crushed to death.
Details of the Horror.
A rear-end collision on the Chicago and
Northwestern marked the departure of
the Christian Endeavor delegates for the
convention at San Francisco. As soon as
the wreck was reported to the Chicago
Offices OF the Chicago and Northwestern.
Superintendent j. G. Stewart Of the Ga
lena division ordered special train and
proceeded to the scene.
Other officials dispatched messengers
for the company's doctors, and at 3 o'clock
Assistant General Superintendent w. A.
Gardner and corps of surgeons left for
West Chicago.
The various sections of the Northwest
ern specials were crowded with young
Endeavorers from all over the United
States, but the presumption is that the
majority Of the passengers were Eastern
erS.
Running Without Schedule.
Owing to the crush caused by the rush
Of Christian Endeavor business all sched-
ules were abandoned and trains were sent
out as fast as filed. Nine sections left
the Northwestern depot at intervals Of
fifteen minutes, beginning at 1890, to say
nothing of trains sent out earlier in the
evening. Sections Nos. /, 2 and 3 got
through West Chicago safely. Section
was made up Of a baggage car, day
coach ana seven sleepers, containing
about 400 passengers.
Inasmuch as there were about 400 peo
pie to Il section the blockade is serious.
Sections Nos. and were unable to pro-
coed, and sections Nos. 6, {, s and 8 are
blocked between Chicago and West Chi
cago, thus delaying nearly $500 people.
superintendent Gardner Talks.
Assistant General Superintendent Will
liam A. Gardner said he could give no
tangible reason yet as to the cause Of the
accident.
"The road is run on a semaphore block
system all the way to Turner junction."
said Mr.. Gardner. This blocks train
every 1,6O0 feet, and in addition we were
using what we call the positive block
system. This consisted in the operators
| at haywood, Wheaton and Turner run
ming the trains by wire and keeping a
close tab with the dispatches as to the
time each passed station.
"Then the dispatcher regulated the
speed and distance between trains. OF
course, he was compelled to rely entirely
on the accuracy of the time checking done
by the operators at the stations named,
and unless one of these made n mistake
and transmitted tie wrong check time,
either to the next station or to the dis
patcher, I cannot imagine what could
have caused the wreck.
I'VE had taken every possible precau-
ton to guard against delay and accident.
and, as / said, worked the positive block
as well as our regular semaphore sys.
tenn"
Great Crush of Travellers.
The Northwestern road took out over
1000 passengers, bound for the conven-
ton at San Francisco. The depot was
crowded all day Tuesday and the excur-
sionists were in the best of spirits at the
prospect of pleasant trip across the con-
tinent. At o'clock the first train went
out. It was of nine sleepers, filled with
Chicagoans. Immediately following was
another of ten sleepers, also filled with
Chicagoans. Then came the New York
delegation in a train of eight sleepers.
This left at G:15, and then at 8 the Penn
sylvania crowd followed in a train of
nine sleepers. Two trains of nine sleep
ers each went out at 10 with the Massa
chusetts delegation and then came the
regular train in three sections of eight,
nine and ten sleepers respectively. These
went out at 1890. Eight sleepers were in
the train that took the Farm, Fire and
Preside party at the same hour and two
rains of eight sleepers each took out the
Michigan people Immediately after. Nine
sleepers were in the Wisconsin train that
followed at once.
Every car was filled to overlooking, and
the depot master had all he could do to
find the proper accommodations for the
immense throng. The scenes in the depot
as the trains were being filed were excit-
ing, and only experienced men could know
how to properly handle such u crowd. All
the preliminaries passed off without a
hitch, however, and the road officials were
congratulating themselves on the success
with which they had handled big job,
when the news of the accident came.
TWO MORE WRECKS.