The Cape Girardeau Democrat., 1897-07-03
SEVEN MEN KILLED

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Bridge, Carrying Its Living Freight
Down to Death-Nesrly All of the Trains
Crew, Including Five Railway Mall
Clerks, Killed.
KANSAS CITY, Mo-, June 2s.-Seven
eoffins were forwarded to st. Louis
! yesterday from Missouri City. They
contained the remains of victims OF
Saturday nights wreck on the Wabash
road. A corrected list of the dead is.
as follows:
W. S. Mills, postal clerk, st. Louis.
o. NJ. Smith, postal clerk, st. Louis
Gustave A. Smith, postal clerk, st.
Louis.
Charles Winters, postal clerk, St.
Louis.
F. W. Brink, postal clerk, st. Louis.
Edward Grindrod, baggageman, St.
Louis.
Charles ?. Greasley, brakeman, St.
Louis.
The conductor of the train G. C..
Copeland, of st. Louis, who was re-
ported among the dead, is still alive.
He was removed yesterday morning to-
the railroad hospital at Moberly. With
a fractured skull and several broken
ribs, he fingers between life and death,
but the surgeons express hope that
he will recover. Conductor Copeland.
was supposed to be dead when taken
from the wreck and his body, with a
handkerchief drawn over his face, was
ranged in a row with the seven
corpses. A few minutes later some one
observed a sign of life and he was.
quickly transferred to a stretcher and
given every possible attention. Of the
10 others injured, not one is in crit
cal condition. Among them there is
not one broken limb, though many
were thrown three-quarters of the
length of the coaches in which
they were riding. Mrs. w. II. Wilkin-
son, of Kansas City, is the most seri-
ously hurt. Two small bones of her
left hand are broken, and she suffered
a severe laceration of the thigh, as
well as bruises about the face and
neck. The wounds of most of the 9TH
ers are trivial.
All indications are that death came
to at least four of the five unfortunate
mail clerks almost instantly. Their
car pitched end first through the break
in the trestle, and they must.have been
drowned in the raging stream while in
an unconscious condition. The re-
mains of the four were carried from
the wreck and were recovered some
distance down the stream. There were
signs of life in the body of the fifth
mail clerk when rescuers dragged him
from the wreck, but he died few min
utes later on the bank of the creek.
Saturday night it was feared there
were more bodies in the stream, but q
search Sunday proved that the fatalities
were limited to those already named.
Saturday but small stream was flow
ing beneath the trestle where the wreck
occurred. In ordinary weather it is
dry creek bed. The storm of Saturday
night, which was almost a cloud-burst,
had swollen the little stream to torren-
tial proportions. The flood carried
away. wagon bridge short distance
above the Wabash trestle. The wreck
of this bridge was hurled down upon
the railroad trestle and carried away
row of wooden supports in the center.
A neighboring farmer noticed the
perilous condition of the trestle and
resolved to flag the passenger train.
which he knew to be about due. For
nearly an hour he stood there in the
terrific downpour of rain, only to
fail at last in his good intentions,
for when the Wabash company's
fast mail came laundering on the
storm was almost binding, and the en-
gineer evidently could not see the sig
nal which the farmer frantically
waved across the track. The loco
motive struck the trestle; a moment
later the dlsaste swas presented in all
its horrors. The engine passed over,
but the tender went through with the
trestle. The baggage car
toppled over on its side, while the mail
ear, which followed, pitched into the
stream end first. Every life in this
ear was lost. The smoker, next be-
hind, followed. 1t was in this car that
Conductor Copeland was riding. The
0ther occupants escaped serious injury.
The chair car, next behind, also
plunged in upon the mass of wreckage
end first and all its passengers We're
thrown to the forward end in an indie
heap. How they escaped
With no more serious injuries is mys-
cry which all the passengers in this
,oach are puzzled over.
The front end of the sleeper. next in
,he rear, jammed into the protrudiny
md of the chair car and was thus pre-
rented from following the other into
he chasm. The two Excelsior Springs
coaches in the rear end remained ON
he track.
The scene of the wreck, which is but
4 miles northeast of Kansas City, near
Missouri City station, was visited yes
erday by many persons. A wrecking
rain worked there all day repairing
he trestle and raising the shattered
caches, and last night trains were
moving over the road as usual