Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1897-10-28
DROWNED LIKE RATS
Terrible Accident on New
York Central Railroad.
TRAIN PLU NGES INTO THE HUDSON
Twenty Eight Lives We're Lost-Disas'
ter Caused by the Giving Way
of an Embankment

Twenty Eight Lives We're Lost-Disas'
ter Caused by the Giving Way
of an Embankment.
Garrison's, y. Y, Oct. 26.-From
the sleep that means refreshment ana
rest to the eternal sleep that knows no
awakening plunged in the twlnkllng OF
an eye this morning 2S souls, men,
women and children. In the Shiny bed
# the Hudson river train laden with
-umbering humanity plowed, dragging
through the waters the passengers.
There was nothing to presage the ter
rbe accident which so suddenly de-
prived these unfortunates of life.
The New York Central train left
Buffalo last night, and had progressed
nearly nine-tenths OF the distance
toward its destination. The engineer
and his fireman had just noted the gray
lawn breaking from the east and the
light streak OF red denoting the suns
appearance, when the great engine,
A servant Of the rails, plunged into the
depths OF the river. Neither engineer
nor fireman will ever tell the story OF
the throttle the engineer plunged with
his engine to the rivers bottom, and
the fireman, too, was at his post. be-
hind them came the express car, the
combination car and the sleepers, and
these piled on top of the engine.
/ 1t is known that it was trifie foggy
and that the track was not visible, but
/ in
/ of steel it must have been OF very re-
cent happening, for only an hour be-
/ fore there passed over it a heavy pas
senger train laden with human freight.
| Neither is an explanation ready. All
is conjecture. The section OF road was
supposed to be the very best on the en-
tire division. There was a great, heavy
retaining wall all along the bank, and,
while the tide was high yesterday, 1t
was not unprecedented. What seems
to have happened was that underneath
the tracks and ties the heavy wall had
given way. When the great weight OF
the engine 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 very
blessing. AS the train plunged over the
embankment, the coupling that held
the last three of the six sleepers broke
and thew miraculouslv remained on the
broken track. In that way some go
lives were saved.
Following is list OF the dead as far
as ascertaned up to midnight
Thomas Reilly, OF st. Louis.
t. A. Green, OF Chicago.
W. II. Myers, Of fremont, \. j.
Woman, unidentified.
Woman, unidentified.
Giuseppe Paduano, Of New York.
W. S. Becker, of Newark, n. j.
Unknown man, died while being res
,ued.
A. &. Mckay, private secretary to
General Superintendent Van Etten;
body supposed to be in the wreck.
John Folye, engineer OF East Albany;
body not recovered.
John @. Tompkins, fireman, of East
Albany; body not recovered
Wong Gin and eight unidentified
Chinese.
OF eye-witnesses there were none ex-
cept the crew OF a tugboat passing with
a tow. They saw the train, with its
light, as it came flashing about the
curves, and then saw the greater part Of
it 90 into the river. Some of the cars
with closed windows foated, and the
tug, whistlng for help, cast off its
hawser and started to the rescue.
A porter jumped from one of the cars
that remained on the track and ran into
the yard of Augustus CARTS house,
near which the accident occurred, and
stood screaming for help, and moaning:
"The train is in the river; all our pas
sengers are drowned"
In few minutes Carr had dressed
himself, and getting a boat, rowed
with the porter to the scene. AS they
turned point into the bank, they
came upon the express car and the COM
bination car floating about 20 feet from
the shore. but sinking every minute.
One man was taken from the top of the
car and efforts were made to rescue
those inside. A few We're gotten out,
the passengers left on the track making
human bridge to the shore to take the
wounded on.
The day coach and smoker had gone
down in deep water, and rescue was
impossible. In the latter coach the
condition 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 common
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 long
row, grewsome evidences of the disaster,
the greatest that has ever occurred on
.he railroad.
Total number Of known dead, 49,
stimated number of dead, 20.