Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-10-26

Corbett theatrical combination. On this
schedule IL reached Garrison at 5a6
o'clock. and left there travelling at the
rate OF forty miles an hour
IT'S DOOM PREPARING.
II was a quarter past o'clock in the
morning when Train 4s, which now lies
In ruins at the bottom Of the Hudson,
pulled out of Albany and rumbled across
the bridge on its fatal journey South.
All the way from Buffalo, and even
further West. its doom had been making.
Little delays. things which are ordina-
rly of no moment, had worked together
to hold back the trains which should
have led the way for this one.
The Big Four connection was late from
Cleveland into Buffalo, and 46 started
away from the Lake City on the time OF
the train that should have preceded IL
by half an hour.
Again. the Montreal express was de-
Iayed in Troy to take on the scenery and
baggage of James j. Corbetts show, and
again ill-fated &c took the right of way
and started on with its burden of sleeping
souls.
IT spun on with all speed through the
dumb hours that come before the dawn.
The river villages slumbered as 1t swept
tnrOuKD 1Htfn. lie DlOth SiBldlo lV-t
off the distances with mechanical pre-
ciseness. The track was right as a trivet.
1t was twenty-three minutes of when
Fireman Tompkins sawed at his bell
rope. and the Changing announced the
passing of Garrison Station, and the
doom was at hand.
Two miles or a little less below the
| town, where the rivers eddying has cut
out mighty mouthful from the hills
that overlook It, they call II Corbin' )
Basin. For years ii has been known TO
| Central engineers as a danger spot, and
| always the track hands have been pot
| tering away, bracing up the loose, unce-
mented retaining wall. which guards the
made ground on which the track is laid
from the eddying action of the river.
This was the spot marked for the scene
OF ruin and death. The deep channel here
bends close in shore. Under the very
shadow of the steps there are seventy
feet OF water. and the high tides which
for DAYS and weeks have made talk
among the river men had eaten into the
himsy underplnning silently, but strongly.
Workmen had been at work upon the
wall within the past few days. Their
work was of no avail, II the railroad
company's theory of what caused the
wreck is the true one, though an hour
before a heavy train had passed over
this same spot in safety, and its crew
had received no warning of danger lurk-
ing there.
MAY HAVE BEEN A RAIL SPREAD.
There may have been a rail spread.
Some among the throng which hung all
day about the scene Of disaster say 1t
was SO. Ii is supposed, too, that the
private report submitted TO the Central
magnates gives that as the real cause.
There may have been boulder on the
track. fallen there from the hillside.
There are those who say the upturred
condition of the space between the rails
for distance before the gap shows that
the engines pilot had been bent and shat
tered.
Engineer Foyle and Fireman Tompkins
knew the truth about II, but the knowl-
edge could not more than have dawned
on them when, with a great crash ana
shrek, and a swapping of irons. and a
crunehing of timbers, the doomed train
leaped clear OF the curving track, far
over the narrow fringe of bank that lay
outside the rails, and plunged like a
rocket into the rivers depths. Foyle and
his fireman were past all telling then.
How far the engine sped in its flight
to the dark waters, no one knew. 1t
was a long way, for the cars which II
dragged behind 1t swept clear OF the
bank and crashed one upon another, as
the river engnlfed them.
A rush. a roar, a thunder that shook
the hills and echoed for miles up and
down the Hudson. 1t woke the sleeping
passengers. Some of them had, in truth,
been awake. for an hour, remarking TO
one another the awful speed at which
they were being whirled onward.
Hurled from their seats and from
berths in their sleepers, they knew in
that awful instant what had happened.
Those who were awake heard, above all
tho thunder OF the wreck and the rush.
ing of the waters, wild screams OF ter
ror which will live in their memories
while they live.
The express-car held on by the en-
eine's strength. and as that waneu,
Sr,yen bv the mighty weight of the train
behind it, measured its length again anu
again before 1t disappeared in ruin. Be
Mind II the combination smoker and bag
gago-car. running rear foremost, went
under In the smoking compartment
hnddled the Cinnamon. a dozen OF them.
For minute and little more they chat
tared I'm terror. Then the waters poured
in on them. and save two who fougnt
tboir way out at the heels Of three or
the trainmen. all were lost.
Tn the baggage-car section OF the car
wiIiam Shaw. agent OF Westcotts eX-
press: Ackert, the baggage man. ana
Iohn Smith. the expressman, were talk-
ING The lurch hurled them beadlong,
and the piles Of baggage falling every
where. pinned them as IL fell. win
strength which fright lent them, they
battled their way out
Sbaw who is sturdy, rushed 10 the
toilet rack i'm the smoking compartment,
seized an axe, and chopped a hole In the
woodwork. Through this he and his two
mates clambered TO the top OF the car.
After them went the two Cinnamon, the
only ones Of all their company who es-
caped. From their perch on the roof,
where they were helping out whom .hey
could they heard the frantic cries of the
wretches prisoned in the day coach and
the sleepers sstern. which stiil hung to
the steep, sloping shore.
THREE sLEEPERS STUCK.
ONLY three OF the six sleepers, the
Glenalpine. Hernes. and Niobe. had left
, the rails. The coupling breaking with the
strain had left the others, with the bat
tered Rochester car Diana az their head,
standing safe at the old side OF the
cavernous gap where the track had given
way.
The porters and the few half-naked
passengers who rushed out from the
cars on the shore watched in the fog
dimmed, gray morning light the fearful
scene which lay before them. They saw
Conductor Parrish and his brakeman
standing on the tops Of the half,sunken
cars and helping the imprisoned ones to
scramble from the windows.
They saw Ackert and Shaw and Smith