St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1897-10-29
SCORE OF PEOPLE KILLED.

ONONE UT FEUFLE klLLED.
Fast Train of the New York Contra
Plunges Into River.-Cause of Breal
In Tracks Yet a Mystery. = 81,
Coaches and the Engine Took thu
Plunge.-Night of Horror for a Hun.
dred People.
What is undoubtedly the most disas
trous railroad wreck OF the year in thi.
country occurred on the New York Cen
trial railroad at an early hour Sunday
morning. Nineteen people are known tc
have lost their lives and as many more
were injured a few Of whom may die.
The wrecked train, the Buffalo and
New York special, was running along a
level and straight stretch OF track when,
without an instant's warning, and for
some reason so utterly unexplainable as
to almost warrant a suspicion that the
railroad embankment was blown up, the
solid bank gave way, carrying with it a
wall of stone more than a yard thick,
and the engine and six of the cars OF the
heavy train plunged into the Hudson
river.
There were 100 people on the train al
together including a number of China.
men eight of whom were killed and are
unidentified. Possibly there was also an
employee of the general superintendent
office, who was on the engine. Of these
so are known to be alive, eight of them
injured, the greater number very slightly.
Sixteen bodies of dead have been recov-
cred. Two of the others are up to this
time unidentified. The engineer and fire.
mar are undoubtedly under the engine.
Possibly the employee OF the general su-
perintendent's office is also under the
engine.
In addition to these eight injured when
taken to hospitals there were many who
insisted on going to their homes or to
hotels All of the passengers who were
killed, so TAR as is known, were in either
the day coach or the combination car.
The Cinnamon were in the combination
car penned in like rats and when the
crash and the slide into the water came
they were utterly helpless. The three
Chinamen who were injured and a num-
Der OF Others were in the day coach.
There were fifteen in their party. They
were in charge of an agent of the Cana
dian Pacific railroad and were bound for
New York.
The passengers in the day coach were
penned in, too, and it is nothing short of
marvellous that any of them escaped at
all.
The road runs close beside the river,
where the accident happened and the
Northern express passed over this straight
piece OF track at aforty-mile an-hour gait
eleven minutes before the Buffalo special
reached there. There was no indication
then of danger and nothing to attract
the attention of any member of the train
crew that might have enabled them to
send back a warning that would have
averted the accident. The special came
along at the same gait. 1t was Just a
few minutes before 6 O'Clock when it
reached the point in the road where the
accident happened.
There were probably only three men in
the world who could have told just what
happened and how. These three men
were Engineer Foyle, Fireman Thomas,
and a young mar named Mckay, Gen.
eral superintendent Van Etten's stem
%ographer, who was riding in the engine
with them, and they, it is supposed, are
at the bottom of the river. From the
survivors of the wreck, including the
three or four persons on the train who
were awake at the time of the accident,
the story is gathered:
There were three blasts of the whistle.
A moment later there was a sudden jar,
as though the engineer had suddenly ap-
piled the brakes. The train seemed to
slow up. Then there was a jerk as
though the engineer had opened the
throttle again and started the train at
greater speed; then a third shock, not
very great but sufficient for the persons
who were awake to notice it and remem-
it after the accident. Then came a
TALL. 1t was asst the bottom had dropped
out OF things. One man telling of it
afterwards, said it felt "just as if we
were in an elevator and the rope broke
and let us down" Then came a final
shock and the crashing OF wood and the
'hrieks of people awakened from their
sleep and crying wildly for help. For
halt an hour alter this the screaming was
kept up and there was the smashing of
glass and the cutting away of woodwork
as the people who had been sleeping in
he cars and had not been killed forced
heir way out and helped their compan
ons who had been injured.
The scenes of suffering as described by
hose who escaped uninjured and carried
IN the work of rescue are terrible in the