The herald., 1897-06-28
For Bodies of Saturdays
Victims
SEVEN C0RPSES RECOVERED
AND ONE MORE MAN is LIKELY
TO DIE
OF Nineteen Others Who Went
Through the Trestle Not One Is
Seriously Hurt -
Associated Press Special Wire.

Associated Press Special Wire.
KANSAS CITY, Mo-, June 27.-Seven
collins were forwarded to st. Louis to-
day from Missouri City. They contained
| the remains of the victims of last nights
wreck on the Wabash road. A cor
rected liet of the dead is as follows:
W. S. Mills, postal clerk, st. Louis.
| o. M. 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 Grindrode, baggageman, 81.
Louis.
Charles P. Greasley, brakeman. st.
Louis.
The conductor of the train, c. G. Cope
land Of st. Louis, who was reported last
night among the dead, is still alive. He
was removed this morning to the hos
pital at Moberly. With a fractured
skull and several broken ribs, he fingers
between life and death, but the sur
geons express hope that he will re-
cover. Conductor Copeland was cup
posed to be dead when taken from the
wreck, and the body, with a handker-
chief drawn over the face, was ranged in
a row with the seven corpses. A few
minutes later some one observed sign
of life and he was quickly transferred
to a stretcher and given every possible
attention
OF the nineteen others injured not
one is in a critical condition. Among
them all there ie not one broken limb,
though many of them were thrown
three-quarters of the length of the coach
in which they were riding.
Mrs. w. H. Wilkinson Of Kansas City
is the most seriously hurt. Two small
bones of her left hand are broken and
|, |she suffered severe laceration Of the
thigh. as we'll as bruises about the face
lrnd nank -rls1>-Is- ------'
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 remaine
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
lrescuers dragged him from the wreck,
but he died few minutes later on the
bank of the creek.
Last night it was feared there were
more bodies in the stream, but a care
full search today proved that the fatalt-
ties were limited to those already named.
Today but small stream was flowing
beneath the trestle where the wreck oc-
CURED. In ordinary weather it is dry
creek bed.
The storm Of last night which was al
most a cloudburst, had swollen the lit
tie stream to torrential 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 car
ried away a row Of wooden supports in
} the center
A neighboring farmer noticed the
perilous condition Of the trestle and re-
solved to flag the passenger train, which
he knew to be about due. For nearly an
hour he stood there in the terrific down.
pour 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 engineer evidently could not see the
signal which the farmer 90 frantically
waved across the track.
The locomotive struck the trestle and
a moment later the disaster was pre-
sented in all it's horrors. The engine
passed over but the tender went through
with the tumbling bridge The baggage
car toppled off on it's side, while the mail
car, which followed, pitched into the
stream end first. Every life in this car
was lost. The smoker, next behind, fol-
lowed.
1t was in this car that Conductor
Copeland was riding The other occu-
pants escaped serious injury. The chair
car, next behind, also plunged in upon
the mass of wreckage, end first, and all
it's passengers were thrown to the for
ward end in an indescribable heap How
they escaped with no more serious in
juries is a mystery which all the pas
sengers in this coach are puzzled over.
The front end of the sleeper, next in the
rear, jammed into the protruding end
of the chair car, and was thus prevented
from following the others into the
chasm. The two Excelsior Springs
coaches, in the rear, remained on the
| track.
/ The scene Of the wreck, which is only
twenty miles northeast of Kansas City,
near Missouri City station, was visited
today by many persons. A wrecking
train worked there all day repairing the
trestle and raising the shattered
coaches, and tonight trains are moving
over, the road as usual.
The postal authofities report that
probably nearly all Of the mail carried
on the train was lost or destroyed. When
the wreck occurred the five postal clerks
are supposed to have had all of their
pouches open and to have been at work
distributing the mail. The car wac so
broken and splintered that most of the
mail fioated off. The Wabash train each
evening carries all of Kansas City's mail
for the east, and it is always heavy and
valuable