The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1897-10-25

Poughkeepsie. One was a woman and
the two others were men. one Of whom
looked like q railroad employe. As
near as I can Judge there were IS pe0-
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 great lurch, and
rolled over on its side. The water
rushed in and almost instantly the
lights went out. l knew we were in
the river. and the car seemed to plough
through the water for some time after
1t was submerged.
THE car tilted over on one side. and
managed to reach the fanlight over
head and cling to 1t until help came.
~ Passengers Drow aed Like Rats.
Il heard people In the back part Of
the car groaning as II they were pinned
fast. 1t was so dark that ! could see
no one, and l think tho passengers
must have been drowned like rats.
After while, 1t seemed an age, heard
people on top Of the car and an AK
crushed through the roof. Soon they
had a hole cut In the roof and pulled
me out through it. A man and q boy
father and SOM were also rescued in
the same way. but know of no other
occupants of the coach escaping"
Augustus Kah, German living near
the scene of the wreck, gives this de-
scription:
1T was about five minutes before
when I was awakened by some one in
my yard calling for help. Looking ont
Of my window l saw a sleeping car
porter who shouted: For Gods sake
man, If you own boat, come quickly.
Our train is in the river and people
are drowning.
Il dressed myself and accompanied
by the porter got into my rowboat and
rowed around the curve to where the
train was In the river. When we
reached the cars, which were SUBJ
merged nearly to their roofs. the en-
glne being entirely out of sight. the
crews Of the tugboat were making ef-
forts to save the passengers. The first
man ! saw them take out was, think,
the agent of the express car. The first
persons we succeeded In resculng were
two Cinnamon. who were sitting on the
roof of the smoker. One had his arm
broken. We put them ashore and then
took three more persons off the top
of another car. At the same time people
in their underclothes We're being taken
cut of the sleeping cars by the crews Of
the several tugs. One man on shore.
with an arm cut off, was dying, and we
made his last moments as comfortable
as possible. I want to say that the por-
tiers, although frightened, showed great
bravery and saved many lives"
Five men were rescued from the top
of a floating car few minutes after
the accident. They We're put on train
and taken to Peekskill, about ten miles
down the road. They were admitted to
the Helping Hand hospital. where their
wounds were dressed. or the five three
were Cinnamon. and none were fa- lily
injured.
The Americans were: John F.. Ryan
Of Jersey city. 30 years old, badly
lacerated hand, shoulder and knee;
Clarence Morgan Of Aurora. N. Y, aged
49, broken shoulder The three China
men were suffering from scalp wounds.
Escaped From Floating Cars.
Morgan escaped from II floating car
through a broken panel and swan
ashore Though badly hurt. lie helped
another passenger out.
w. s. Langford. of Bayonne, N. j.,
was in one of the last coaches which
remained on the track He secured an
ax and chopping out a pannel of one of
the partly submerged cars helped to
rescue four neoDle. -~---,------
General Manager Toucey says: 1.-THE
accident was caused by the bed of the
railroad being washed out in some in
eXplicable manner. In this undermined
condition the track sank as soon as the
weight Of the train was put on it, and
the embankment giving away the train
was of course precipitated into the
river.
: "Such conditions as this we have never
looked for. Trains have been running
over this spot for years and years with
out accident or difficulty Of any kind,
and this piece of track was considered
as good as any section Of the railroad.
Not only was the roadbed the hardest
kind of an embanltment, but II was
strengthened by retaining water wall
Cf solid masonry three feet thick"
Other railroad officials were of the
opinion that II Quicksand foundation
OF some kind below the water line was
responsible for the giving way of the
rnadbe1.
Before 10 o'clock q large number of
curious spectators had gathered at the
scene, coming from the nearby towns
and villages by trains wagons, bicycles
and boats. The number of morbdly
curious steady increased as the day
wore on. and excursion boats even
came from places far up and down the
river, all loaded down to the waters
edge, until at mid-alternoon there were
fully 10000 about the wreck. 1t re-
qured the utmost GXcrtion on the part
Of Chief Humphrey, Of the railroad pO-
lice, and his force Of detectives to hold
these people far enough in check 20
allow the railroad men to proceed with
their work. Chief Humphrey Gid good
work in recovering valuables. and if
there were any thieves about they got
no opportunity to ply their trade.
Treasure in the Wreck.
The American Express company had
u number Of It's agents at the scene
early in the day, but they We're power
less to do anything, as no attempt was
made to raise their car. 1t was said
that this car contained thousands of
dollars worth of valualts, but the off,
cials said that all would be recovered,
ns the valuables wore in u stationary
safe attached-to the car
Among the railroad men II is generally
believed that A. q. McEsy, of Har-
lem, private secretary to General Su-
perintendent Van Etten, had lost his
life IN the wreck. He was a passenger
on the train. and was last seen at AL
bany, where 1t was said he boarded
the locomotive TO ride with the en-
gincer. If that is true he shared the
fate of the engineer and fireman.
The known dead are: Thomas Reilly,
Of St. Louis; Wong dim. Chinaman; u.
a. Green, Is, Chicago; A. G. Mckay.
private secretary to General Superln-
tendent Van Eltcn; W. II. G. Meyers.
fremont, N. T., Giuseppe Pa1ucno,
New York; W. s. Becker. Newark. N.
j.; John Foyle, engineer, East Albany:
John Q. Tompkins. fireman. East AL
bany: seven unidentified Cinnamon;
two unidentified women; one unidenti-
fled man. Total number of known