The herald., 1897-10-25
placed on train and taken to Peeks-
kill but died IN the u1y


kill but died on the way
Five men were rescued from the top of
floating car few minutes after the
accident. They were put on train and
taken to Peekskill about ten miles down
the road. They were admitted to the
Helping Hand hospital, where their
wounds were dressed. OF the five three
were Chinese arG none were fatally in
jured. The Americans were:
JOHN E. RYAN of Jersey City; shout
der and knee bruised.
CLARENCE MORGAN, Aurora, N.
Y, aged 26; broken shoulder.
The three Chinese were suffering from
scalp wounds.
Morgan escaped from a floating car
through broken panel and swan
ashore. Though badly hurt he helped
another passenger out.
w. S. Lapgford of Bayonne. N. j., was
in one of the last coaches which remain
ed on the track. He secured an AK and
chopped out a panel of the partly sub
merged cars and, helped to rescue four
people.
AT 8 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.
THREE PLUNGED TO DEATH
The dead man and five injured were
left at Peekshill, 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,
\, NJ
Coy and Trainmasters Wyck and Stack
from Tarrytown, and almost simultane-
ously a wrecking train came from
Poughkeepsie. The officials saw at
once that the wrecking cars would be 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 river derrick
and floats to raise the cars.
General Manager Toucey gave to the
representative of the Associated Press
the following statement as to the cause
of the disaster:
'The accident was caused by the bed
Of the railroad being washed. out in
some inexplicable manner. In this un
dermined condition the track sank
as soon as the weight of the train was
put on it, and the embankment giving
way, the train was, of course, precip-
tated into the river. Such conditions as
these We have never looked for. Trains
have been running over this spot for
years and years without accident or diff
ficulty 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 an en-
bankment, but it was 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 below the water line was re-
sponsible 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 near
by towns and villages by trains, wagons.
bicycles and boats The number of
morbidly curious steadily increased as
the day wore on, and excursion boats
even came from places far up and down
the river, all loaded down to the waters
edge, until at mid-afternoon there were
fully 10000 people about the wreck. 1t
required the utmost exerton of Chief
Hammond of the railroad police and
his corps OF detectives to hold these peo-
pie in check to allow the railroad men to
proceed with their work. Chief Ham
mond did good work in recovering valu-
ables, and, if there were any thieves
about they got no opportunity to ply
their trade.
The American Express company had
a number of its agents at the scene, but
they were powerless to do anything.
and no attempt was made to raise their
car. 1t was said that this car contained
thousands Of dollars worth of valuables,
but the officials said that all would be
recovered, as the valuables were in q
stationary safe attached to the car.
Among the railroad men it was gen.
orally believed that A. G. Mckay of
Harlem, private secretary to General
Superintendent Van Etten, had lost his
life in the wreck. He was passenger
on the train, and was last seen at AL
bany, where it was said he boarded the
locomotive to ride with the engineer. If
that is true, he shared the fate of the
engineer and fireman; at any rate, he
was still missing up to a late hour.
The terrible evidences of the wreck
were visible at point two miles below
here tonight under intensely spectacu-
lar circumstances. The great wreck
ing car torch threw a red glare over the
men busily engaged in tearing apart the
wreckage to get at any bodies that might
be underit. The men worked with great
energy, and ever and anon would bring
to the surface a body cramped, into an
abnormal position.
On the top of the partly submerged
cars gang of men chopped away with
axes, and the huge derrick from the
wrecking train tore out the mahogany
and ceilings and. berths in
the endeavor to save somebody's loved
one from the wreck. On shore great
gang of men worked to get the inside,
or up, track 80 repaired that there would
be no trouble in getting trains through.
Before noon General Manager Toucey
had formed an estimate of the dead.
which he placed at twenty eight, and
no change was made in this estimate
during the day.
A. F. Bracken, conductor of the Wag-
ner cars, was able to account for all
his passengers excepting five, and he
was not sure that they were in the
wreck, as they might have escaped and
gone to New York without his knowl-
edge.
When a diver arrived from New York
this afternoon, the first thing he did
was to go through the three submerged
sleeping cars He reported that he found
no bodies but said that one or two might