The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1897-09-11
A FRIGHTFUL WRECK.
Two Fast Trains on the Santa Fe
Collide,
Causing the Loss of Many Lives-Three Lo'
comotIves Explode and Dig . Hole Deep
Enough to Bury Themselves and sew
srsl Csrs-Bryant to the Rescue.

eral Csrs-Bryan to the Sescuo'
KANSAS CITY, Mo-, Sept. "a special
10 the Times from Emporla' Mas,
says:
One of the worst wrecks in h his
tory of the Santa Fee railroad oc-
CURED three miles east of here at
about 7:3O o'clock last night. Twelve
Or fifteen persons were killed n as
MANY more were badly hurt The last
mail train going east and the Mexico
& California express, west bound,
collided head on.
The Mexico and California express
was pulled by two locomotives, and
when they struck the engine drawing
the fast mail the boilers of all three
engines exploded and tore a hole In the
ground so deep that the smoking car
Of the w~est-bound train went in on
top of the three engines and two mail
cars and balanced there, without turn
ing over.
The passengers in the smoking ar
escaped through the windows. The
front end of this car was enveloped In
a volume of sitting smoke and steam
belching up from the wreck below
and the rear door was jammed tight in
the wreck of the car behind. The
wreck caught fire from the engines
The cars in the hole and the smoking
ear were burned to ashes in no time.
In climbing out of the smoking car
several men fell through the riffs in
H. ,r,Dolr ha1ou- nnA ~ 10 imnOSSlhIR
to tell whether they escaped or were
burned to death.
The west-bound train carried seven
or eight coaches, and its passengers,
included many eXcursionists who -had
been to hear Hon. w. j. Bryan speak
at the county fair at Burlingame. Mr..
Bryan himself was on the train, but
was riding in the rear Pullman, some
300 feet from the cars which were
wrecked. He states that moth ing but
a heavy jolt was experienced by the
passengers in his coach.
Mr.. Bryan was one of the noblest
men in the crowd of rescuers- He
helped to carry out the dead and
wounded and gave the greatest atten-
ton to their care. One poor fellow,
who was baaly MANNED, called to Mr..
Bryan and said:
Il went to heal you to-day; 1 an dy-
ing now, and want to shake your hand
and say God bless you. If you posi-
bly, can, Mr.. Bryan, get me u drink of
water"
Mr.. Bryan went into the fast mail
car, one end of which was burning,
and came out with a drink of water
which he gave to the suffering passen-
ger. He brought out cushions for 9TH
ers of the injured, and vas everywhere
present to minister to the wants of the
suffering.
The engineer of the west-bound
train had received orders to meet the
fast mail at Emporia and was making
up lost time. These two are the fastest
trains in the Santa Fee system, and
the west-bound train must have been
running at 4 speed of at least 40 miles
an hour.
Of the seven or eight cars making up
the Mexico and California express only
the mail, baggage and express and
smoking cars were destroyed. The
coach following the smoker was badly
splintered. There were not more than
n dozen passengers on the fast mail,
all in one coach, and while none of
them were seriously injured, their
shaking up was terrible. Every seat
in the coach was torn from the floor,
and many floor planks came up with
the seats.
One man, John Sweeney, was thrown
over three seats and through a win
but escaped with only scratches
and bruises. The other ears of the
fast mail train, a baggage and an ex-
press, were totally wrecked.
AT midnight it became apparent that
the earlier estimates of the number OF
dead were exaggerated, and it is now
apparent that the number of dead will
not exceed ten or eleven. During the
excitement early in the evening it was
reported that nearly all of the six
postal clerks IN the two trains were
killed or missing. Two of the clerks
were killed. All of the others, a
one, are more or less seriously injured.
The dead were brought to Enporia.
AT midnight n special train left EN-
po' - bearing II of the injured to To-
peka, where they will be cared for in
the railroad hospital.