The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-09-10
COLLISION.
Large Number of People Killed in
Wreck.
1T OCCURS NEAR EMPORIA, KAN.

William j. Bryan. Late Candidate for Pres
ident, Helps To Recover the Bodies of the
Dead and Rescue the Injured-Six Young
Men Drowned by the Capsizing of
Yacht I'm Lake st. Clair Disaster Caused
by Fooihardiness.
Emporia, Kan, Sept. 10.-Three miles
east of this city Wednesday night oc-
CURED one of the worst wrecks in the
history of the Santa Fe road At least
twelve men were killed and ten or
twelve badly wounded. The dead are:
- Rragman, Topeka; James Brennan,
engineer, Topeka; r. A. Doran, clerk,
Emporia; William Frisby, engineer;
NJ. Gonzales, fireman; Nate Hollister.
fireman, Topeka; J. f. Sours, express
messenger. Kansas City; unknown man;
Ben Walters, fireman, st. Joseph, Mo.
The injured are: c. ID. Adams, City
Of Mexico, painfully bruised; j. f. But
Ter, county attorney Chase county, hip
broken, may die; John Dagan, Topeka.
face smashed; ID. c. Ester. Kansas City,
express messenger, both legs broken;
Claude Holiday. Lawrence, Kan, ex-
press messenger, both legs broken, will
die; William f. Jones' Kansas City, leg
and arms broken; b. p. Metik. Atchison,
badly bruised; William Patrick, Kansas
City, leg ard arm broken; Phil Schier,
Kansas City. hip crushed; Mike Swee-
ney, Gainesville, Tex, back hurt; c. A
Van Vliet, Kansas City, badly bruised
w. j. Bryan Escapes.
William j. Bryan, the free silver ad-
,,,t NOT
injured. He was one Of the most active
men in the crowd Of rescuers. He
helped to go through the wreck Drawing
the most terrible dangers. assisting in
carrying out every one Of the dead and
wounded men and p yinC TIE greatest
attention to their care. The wreck was
the result OF a collision between the fast
mail going east and the California train
going west. The Mexico ard California
train was drawn by two engines, and
when they struck the fast mall all threa
engines exploded ard tore q hole la tn.
track so deep that the smoking ear o.
the bound train went on top OF tn,
wreck Of the three engines and two mai
cars and balanced there without turning
over.
To sdd TO the horror OF the scene ii
AlllS Nttl N4lt lAOIl VAtI ON NlillILE Il ter
rible volume Of smoke and steam while
the rear door was so tight that It would
not open. In jumping out cf the win
dOws two or three passengers fell
through the riffs OF the wreck under
meath, and it is impossible to tell what
happened to them.
Danger Light Was Bad.
Behind the west-bound train that was
wrecked was a freight train. It's en-
gineer stopped at Lang for orders. He
says that the red light. the danger sig
nal, was hung out by the operator there
to warn the west bound passenger 70
stop, was burning so dimly and the
glass was smoked so badly that he
could not see ii until he had left his
cab and gone close up to It. The dim
ness of this light was probably the cause
of the accident. The engineer of the
east-bound train could not see the
warning signal as he rushed past and
he pulled the throttle wide open and
sped on for Emporia. seven miles away
The night operator at Lang. whose duty
IL was to see to the signal lights. was
new man at that place He had only
been on duty there ten days.