The herald., 1897-10-25

partment; eight Chinese en- route from
the Canadian border to New York. and
a middie-aged' man, supposed to be
Thomas Reilly of st. Louis. All of
these, excepting the baggageman, per-
ished. The day coach contaie,ed eigh-
teen 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 pas
sengers. The total cargo of human
freight consisted of something over 100
people.
At Fishkill the train lessened it's
speed, as it is the custom to run from
that point to Tarrytowr, at the rate of
about 25 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 were,
for the most part, doubled up In their
seats. Just how the train met it's awful
fate will never be fully known, for the
msr1 who first felt the danger, Engineer
John Foyle and Fireman John Tomp-
kins, 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 max
ing up his report in ONE of the cars when
the crash came, was rendered us,con-
scious by blow ON the head One of
the few occupants of the coach who
escaped was F. ]. Deagan, wood fin
isher of New York. His left eye was
cut by broken glass and his body was
slightly bruised.
Mr.. Deagan made this statement:
with my friend, w. H. Myers of Pas
sale, N. j., who was killed in the car from
which I escaped, I had been to Pough-
keepsie. WE boarded the train at that
place and took a seat in the coach Three
other people got on at Poughkeepse.
One was a woman and the two others
were men, one Of whom looked like a
railroad man. AS near as can Judge
there were eighteen people in the coach,
most of them being women and children,
and nearly all were asleep.
Myers and I sat in the middle of the,
car. When the crash came the car gave
great lurch and rolled over on it's side,
The water rushed in and almost instant
ly the lights went out. 1 knew that we
were in the river, and the car seemed to
after it was submerged
1.-THE car was tilted over on one side,
and I managed to reach the fan ligh.
overhead and cling to it until help came.
Il heard people in the. back of the car
groaning as If they were pinned fast.
1t wasso dark that could see no one and
the passengers must have been drowned
like rats. After a while-it seemed an
age-I heard people on top of the car, and
an axe crushed throught he roof The
noise of that axe made the sweetest
music I ever heard in my life. A man
and a boy Gather and SOM were AFRO
rescued in the same way, but I know
of no other occupants of the coach es-
Gaping. The car at this time was float
ing, but fast filling with water, and we
were put ashore in rowboat. am sure
that my friend, Myers. was drowned"
Augustus Kah, German living near
the scene of the wreck, gives this de-
scription:
1T was about five minutes before six
when was awakened by some one in my
yard calling for help. Looking out of my
window saw sleeping car porter, who
shouted. For Gods sake, man, if you
own a boat come quickly. Our train is
in the river and people are drowning
Il dressed myself and, accompanied by
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 submerged nearly
to their roofs, the engine being entirely
out of sight, the crews of the tug boats
were making efforts to save passengers.
The first man I saw them take out was
the agent of the express car. The first
persons we succeeded in rescuing were
two Chinese, who were sitting ON the roof
of the smoaker. One had his arm broken.
We put them ashore and then took three
persons off the top of another car. At
the same time people in their UNDER
clothes were being taken out of the Sleep
ing cars by crews of several tugs. One
man on shore, with an arm cut off. was
dying, and we made his last moments as
comfortable as possible. I want to saw
that the porters, although frightened,
showed great bravery and saved many
lives"
one OF the trainmen who survived the
disaster ran to the first signal tower to
telegraph for help. The place where the
wreck occurred is rather isolated. 1t is
just at the entrance to what is known as
Kings cut, three miles south Of Garri-
sons and five miles north of Peekskill.
The two express trains were following
close behind the ill-fated state express.
and the engine of one of them was sent
to Garrison's for General Manager j. M.
Toucey, who lives there, while the other
engine hurried to Peekskill for medical
aid.
Mr.. Toucey was the first official Of The
road to the scene, arriving there at 1880
The engine which brought him there
steamed TO Cold Spring and returned
with Drs Winslow, Fillebrown and MUIR
dock. In the meantime Drs. Charles and
Perley Mason, j. NJ Tilden, P. C. Snow
den and E. D. Lynn had arrived
OF the dramatic horror of the situa-
ton in the combination car when it left
the track and struck the water perhaps
the best account is had from the story
of Herman Acker of Peekskill, the bag
gage and mail sorter. Acker was suffer-
ing badly from the shock when seen, but
the scenes he graphically described. He
said:
John Shaw, agent of the Westcott
Express company and myself were in the
compartment when suddenly there was
q terrible bump and then rush of wa
ter that forced us toward the ceiling.
The car seemed to turn completely over
and had filled with water to within about
a foot of the top. When we struck the
car whirled completely around, the end
which the Chinese occupied being under
=, 1t