The Saint Paul globe., 1897-10-25
HORROR ON THE
n. Y. CENTRAL
Continued From First Page.

press, anu the engine OI OllS VI -lHSlll
| was sent to Garrisons for General
Manager ]. M. .Toucey, who lives there,
while the other engine hurried to
Peekskill for medical aid. Mr.. Toucey
was the first official Of the railroad at
the scene, reaching there at 1880. The
engine which brought him there steam
! ed to Cold Spring and returned with
Drs. Winslow, Fillebrown and Muir
| dock. In the meantime Drs. Charles
and PerIey Mason, J. M. Tflden, P. c.
| Snowden and E. D. Lynn had arrived,
and all the doctors were soon at work
among the injured.
THE DRAMATIC HORROR
OF the situation in the combination car
when 1t left the track and struck the
water perhaps is best told in the story
Of Herman Acker, of Peekskill, the
| baggageman and mail sorter Acker
was suffering badly from the shock
| when seen, but the scenes he graphical
ly described. He said:
| John Shaw, agent for the Westcott Express
company, and myself were In the compart-
ment, when suddenly there was terrible
| bump and then a rush of water that forged
US toward the ceiling. The car seemed TO
| turn completely over and had filled with
water to within about foot of the top; when
we struck the car whirled completely around,
| the end which the Chinese occupied being
under water, while our end was lifted up.
| We swan around and got Yent1lator open,
| and, noting the situation, got an ak from
tool box which was afoat and smashed a
| panel in the end of the car. We crawled
| through the hole to the roof OF the car, and
a row boat came out and took us ashore.
Acker has been a railrOader many
! years and has escaped from three Sc
rious accidents. His arm is badly cut
and his body bruised. Shaw escaped
| injury. The first victim Of the disaster
| found was lying on shore dying. He
ho1 +1oo md
| body and his right arm was cut off
near the shoulder, the bleeding stump
alone showing. The member was not
found. The man was placed on train
and taken to Peekskill, but died on the
way. The body was that of a middle
aged man.
| Five men were rescued from the top
Of a floating car a few minutes after
the accident. They were put on train
down the road. They were admitted to
the Helping Hand hospital, where their
wounds were dressed. Of the five,
three were Cinnamon, and none were
fatally injured. The Americans were:
John E. Ryan, Of Jersey City, thirty
years old, badly lacerated hand, shoul-
der and knee; Clarence Morgan, of Au-
rora, N. Y, aged tWenty-six, broken
shoulder. The three Cinnamon were
suffering from scalp wounds. Morgan
| escaped from a floating car through
broken panel and swan ashore. Though
badly hurt, he helped another passen-
ger out.
w. s. Langford. of Bayonne, N J.,
was in one of the last coaches which
remained on the track. He secured
an axe and chopping out panel of one
Of the partly submerged cars help
ed to rescue four people.
At s o'clock one of the express trains
left the scene with the man who had
died on the track and about twenty
five injured persons. The dead man
and five injured were left at Peekskill,
where the injured were taken to the
Helping Hand hospital, while the train
proceeded to New York, with the rest
of the injured. This train had hardly
left the scene of the disaster when a
special engine arrived there bringing
Division Superintendent Mccoy and
Trainmasters Wyckes and Slack from
Tarrytown, and almost simultaneously
q Wrecking train arrived from Peeks-
kill and another came from Pough-
keepsie. The officials saw at once that
the wrecking cars would Se of little
avail in raising the cars from their
position in the river, where they were
almost completely submerged, so the
Chapman Wrecking company, of New
York, was notified to send a river der
rick and floats to raise the cars.
CAUSE OF THE DISASTER.
General Manager Toucey gave the
following statement as to the cause of
the disaster to the representatives of
the Associated Press:
The accident was caused by the bed of the
railroad being washed out in some inexplica-
Bile manner. In this undermined condition the
track sank as the weight of the
train was put on it, and, the embankment
giving way, the train was, of course, precipi-
tated into the river. Such condition as this
we have never looked for. Trains have been
running over this spot for years and years
without 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 embank-
ment but it strengthened by retaining
water wall of solid masonry three feet thick.
Other railroad officials were Of the
opinion that a. quicksand foundation
of some kind belowethe water line was
responsible for the sinking of the
roadbed.
Before 10 o'clock this morning a large
number of curious spectators had gath
cred at the scene, coming from the
nearby towns and villages by trains,
wagons, bicycles and boats. The num-
Der of morbidly curious steadily in
creased as the day wore on, and ex-
cursion boats evene came from places
far I'D and down the river, all loaded
down to the waters s. edge, until at mid
afternoon there were fully 10000 about
the wreck 1t required the utmost ex-
ertion on the part of Chief Humphrey,
of the railroad police, and his force Of
detectives. to hold these people far
enough in check to allow the railroad
men to proceed with their work. Chief
Hunnnhrev did good work in recover
ing valuables, and If there were any
thieves about they got no opportunity
il
to ply their trade
The American Express had num-
her of its agents at the scene early in
the dav, but they were powerless to
do ANYTHING An attempt was made
TO raise the car. 1t was said that this
car contained thousands of dollars
and other valuables, but the officers
said that all would be recovered, as the
yaluables were in stationary safe
attached to the car. It was at first
Thought that the express messenger,
John Smith, of Buffalo, had lost his
life but it was subsequently learned
that he had been rescued by one of
the tugs and sent to New York with
the first lot Of survivors.
Among the railroad men it Is gen.
erally believed that A. G. McCay, of
Harlem, private secretary to General
Supt. Van Etten, mad lost MS life In
the wreck. He was g. passenger on
the train and was last seen at Albany,
where it was said he boarded the To-
comotfve to ride with the engineer. II
that is true, he shared the fate of the
engineer and fireman; at any rate, he
was still missing UP to late hour.
The terrible evidences of the fright
f,,1 wreck were visible at the point two
miles below here tonight under in
tensely spectacular circumstances. The
great wrecking car Torch threw red
glare over the men, busily engaged IN
fha tearing apart of the wreckage to