The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-25


PASSENGERS DROWNING.
porter jumped from one of the cars
that remained on the track and ran into
tie yard of Augustus Carr's house, near
which the accident occurred, and stood
screaming for help. 1.-THE train is, in the
river; all our passengers are drowned"
In few minutes Carr had dressed him
self. and, getting boat, rowed with the
in the bank they came on the express car
and the combination car, floating about
twenty feet from 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 were pulled out. the
passengers left on the track making a hu-
man bridge to the shore to take the
wounded. The day coach and smoker had
gone down in the deeper water and rescue
was impossible. In the smoker the condi-
tions must have been horrible. The car
turned completely over and the passenger
end Of it was in the deep water, while the
baggage end stood up toward the surface.
The men in that lower end must have
fought like fends for brief period. for
the bodies, when taken cut, were a mass
Of wounds.
At this time there were in the smoker,
in addition to the baggageman, Herman
Acker, of Peekskil. who was in his COM
partrnent, eight Cinnamon en- route from
the Canadian border to New York, and
:niddle-aged man, supposed to be Thomas
Reilly, of 2S6O Wisconsin avenue, st Louis.
All of these perished, excepting the bag
gage master.
The day coach contained eighteen or
twenty passengers, many of whom were
women and children. How many of these
escaped is not known, but at least twelve
were drowned or killed in this car
Behind the coach were the six sleepers,
with about sixty-five passengers, the total
cargo of human freight consisting of some
thing over one hundred people.
At Fishkll the train les ssened its speed.
as is customary, to run from that point to
Tarrytown at the rate of about twenty five
miles an hour. Most of the passengers
were asleep. those in the sleepers being in
their berths, while the occupants of the
coach and smoker, for the most part, were
doubled up in their seats.
Just how the train met its awful fate will
never be fully known, for the men who first
felt the danger, Engineer John Foyle and
Fireman John Tonplxins, tonight lie dead
in the cab of their locomotive at the bottom
of the Hudson river. Conductor Parish.
who was in charge of the train. and who
was making up his report in one of the
cars when the crash came, was rendered
unconscious by blow on the head. When
he recovered he. was three seats ahead of
the one n which he had been sitting.
A VICTIMS STORY.
One of the few occupants of the coach
who escaped was Frank J. Degan, a wood
finisher Of New York. His left eve was
cut by broken glass and his body was
slightly bruised Mr.. Degan made this
statement: with my friend. w. III. G.
Myers, Of Passaic, N. J., who was killed
in the car from which escaped L had
been to Poughkeepsie. We boarded the
train at that place and took seat in the
coach. Three other people got on at Pough-
keepsie, one woman and two men, one of
whom looked to be a railroad employee AS
rear as 1 can judge there were eighteen
people In that coach. most of them being
women and children, and nearly all were
asleep. Myers and 1 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 in
stantly the lights went out. 1 knew we
were in the river, and the car seemed to
plough through the water for some time
after it was submerged.
'"The car was tilted over on one side and
managed to reach the fan light overhead
and cling to it until help came 1 heard
people in the back part of the car groaning
as if they were pinned fast. 1t was so dark
that 1 could see no one and I think the
passengers must have been drowned like
rats After while. it seemed an age. I
feard people on top of the car and an axe
crashed through the roof. The noise Of
that axe and the splintered timbers made
the sweetest music ever heard in my life
Soon they had a hole cut in the roof and
pulled me out. A man and a boy, father
and son, were also rescued in the same
way, but 1 know of no other occupants of
the coach escaping. The car at this time
was floating. but fast filing with water
and we were put ashore in a rowboat. I
am sure that my friend Myers was
drowred.'
Augustus Kah, German living near the
scene of the wreck, gives this description:
ut was about five minutes before O clock
when awakened by some one in my
yard calling for help. Looking out of my
window, 1 saw a sleeping car porter who
shouted: For Gods sake, man, if you own
boat, come quickly. Our train is in the
river and the people are drowning 1
dressed myself and with 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 sinh