The record-union., 1897-10-25

top of the engine.
1t is known it was a trifie foggy, and
the track was not visible, but if there
was any break in the lines of steel it
must have been of very recent hap
pening, for only an hour before there
had passed over it a heavy passenger
train, laden with human freight Meth
er is an explanation ready. All is con-
lecture.
The section of road was supposed to
be The very best on the entire division.
There was a great heavy retaining wall
all along the bank, and, while the tide
was high yesterday, it was not unpre-
cedented.
What seems to have happened was
that underneath the tracks and ties
the heavy wall had given away and
when the great weight of the - ne
struck the unsupported tracks it went
crashing through the rest of the wall
and toppled over into the river.
Then there happened what on the
railroad at any other time would have
caused disaster, but now proved a very
blessing. AS the train plunged over
the embankment the coupling that held
the last three of the six sleepers broke
and they miraculously remained on the
broken train. In that way some sixty
lives We're saved.
OF eyewitnesses there were none, ex-
cept the crew of tugboat passing with
a tow. They saw the train with its
lights as it came flashing about the
curves and then saw the greater part
of it go into the river. Some of the
cars with closed windows fioated and
the tug whistling for help cast off it's
hawser and started to the rescue. A
porter jumped from one of the cars
that remained on the tracks and ran
into the yard of Augustus Carr's house,
near which the accident occurred, and
stood screaming for help and moaning,
The train is in the river All our
passengers are drowned" In a few
minutes Carr had dressed himself, and
getting a boat, rowed with the porter
to the scene. AS they turned a point
in the bank they came upon the ex-
press car and the combination car
floating about twenty feet from the
shore, sinking every minute. One man
was taken from the top of the car and
efforts were made to rescue those in
side a few were gotten out, the pas
human bridge to the shore to take the
wounded on. The day coach and smok-
er had gone down in the deeper water
and rescue was impossible. In the lat
ter coach the conditions must have been
horrible. The car turned completely
over and the passenger end of it was
deep in the water While the baggage
end stood up towards the surface. The
men in that lower end must have
fought like fiends for a brief period
for the bodies when taken out were a
mass of wounds.
The closing scene of the first day of
this tragedy is drawn around a COM
binatiOn car that stands near the scene
of the accident, where nearly a score
of badly-mutilated bodies, none of them
yet claimed by friends, are lying in a
long row, gruesome evidence of the dis
aster, the greatest that has ever oc-
CURED on this railroad
The wrecked train was known as the
State express. 1t left Buffalo at Z
. clock this morning The train was
hauled by engine S72, and consisted of
one American Express car, one COM
binatiOn baggage and smoking car, one
day coach and six sleepers. Pough-
keepsie was the last stopping place of
the train before the disaster at 800
a. m.
At this time there were in the smoker,
in addition to the baggageman, Her.
man Acker of Peekskill, who was in his
compartment, eight Chinese en- route
from the Canadian border to New York.
and a middle-aged man, supposed to
be Thomas Reilly of St. Louis All of
these, excepting the baggageman, per-
ished. The day coach contained eigh-
teen or twenty passengers, many of
whom were women and children. How
many of these escaped is not known,
but at least twelve were drowned or
killed in this car. Behind the coach
was the six sleepers. with about sixty
five passengers. The total cargo of
human freight consisted of something
over 100 people.
AT Fishkill the train lessened its
speed, as it is its custom from that
point to Tarrytown at the rate of about
twenty-five miles an hour. Most of
the passengers We're asleep, those in
the sleepers being in their berths, while
the occupants Of the coach and smoker
were, for the moss part, doubled up
in their seats. Just how the train met
its awful fate will never be fully known.
for the men who first felt the danger,
Engineer John Foyle and Fireman John
Tompkins, tonight lie dead in the cab
Of their locomotive at the bottom of
the Hudson River. Conductor Parish,
who was in charge of the train, and
who was making UP his report in one
of the cars when the crash came, was
rendered unconscious by a blow on the
head.
One of the few occupants of the coach
who escaped was Frank J. Degan. a
wood -finisher of New York His left
eye was cut by broken glass and his
body was slightly bruised. Mr.. Degan
made this statement:
with my friend w. H Myers of
Passaic N J., who was killed in the
car from which 1 escaped 1 had been
to Poughkeepsie. We boarded the train
at that place and took a seat in the
coach. Three other people got on at
Poughkeepsie. One was a woman and
the two others We're men, one of whom
looked to be a railroad man. AS near
as 1 can judge there We're eighteen peo-
pie in the coach, most of them being
women and children, and nearly all
were asleep.
Myers and I sat in the middle of
the car. When the crash came the car
gave a great lurch and rolled over on
its side The water rushed in and al
most instantly the lights went out. ]
knew that we were in the river and
the car seemed to plow through the
water for some time after it was sub
merged.
The car was tilted over on one side
and MANAGED to reach the fan light