The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-09
w. ]. BRYAN IN THE WRECK
HE WAS NOT HURT, AND ASSISTED IN
THE WORK OF RESCUE.
The Accident Caused by "A Miscarriage
of Orders-One of the Cars Burned
and Others Splintered.


here at about 7:SO o'clock tonight. Ten
or twelve persons were killed and as many
more were badly hurt. The known dead are:
JAMES BRENNAN, engineer, Topeka.
NATE HOLLISTER, fireman, Topeka.
WILLIAM FRISBEY, engineer.
- GONZALES, fireman.
JF. SAURS, express messenger, Kansas
City.
r. A. DORAN, postal clerk. Emporia, died
at IL o'clock.
- SHURLEY, fireman.
DANIEL M'KENNON, boy, Kansas City.
UNKNOWN MAN, tramp.
BEN WALTERS, fireman, of st. Joseph,
Mo-, is missing.
Among the seriously injured are:
CLAUDE HOLIDAY, Lawrence, ex-
press messenger, both legs broken.
d. C. ERTER, Kansas City, express mes
senger, legs broken, will die.
JOHN DAGAN Topeka, face smashed.
]. T. BUTLER, county attorney Chase
county, hip broken, may die
WILLIAM r. JONES, Kansas City, leg
and arms broke.
PHIL sCHIER, Kansas City, hip
crushed.
c. A. vANFLEIT, brakeman, Kansas
City, badly bruised.
WILLIAM PATRICK, Kansas City, leg
and arm broken
C: D: ADAMS, City of Mexico, painfully
bruised.
Nuke SWEENEY. Gainesville. Tex.
b. p. METIK, Atchison, badly bruised.
The fast mail train going east and the
Mexico and California express, west
bound, colided head on. The Mexico and
California express was pulled by two loco
motives, and when they struck the engine
drawing the fast mail the boilers of all
three engines exploded and tore a hole in
the ground SO deep that the smoking car
of the west-bound train went in on top of
the three engines and two mail cars and
balanced there, without turning over. The
passengers in the smoking-car escaped
through the windows. The front end of this
| car was enveloped in a volume of sitting
smoke and steam belching up from the
wreck below, and the rear door was jammed
| tight in the wreck of the car behind. The
wreck caught fire from the engines. The
cars in the hole and the smoking-car burned
| to ashes in no time. In climbing out of the
smoking-car several men fell through the
riffs in the wreck below, and it is impos-
sible to tell whether they escaped or were
burned to death.
The west-bound train carried seven or
eight coaches, and its passengers included
many excursionists who had been to hear
Hon. w. ]. Bryan at the county fair at
! Burlingame. Mr.. Bryan himself was on
| the train, but was riding in the rear Pull
man, some four hundred feet from the
| cars which were wrecked He states that
nothing but heavy jolt was experienced
by the passengers in his coach. Mr.. Bryan
| helped to carry out the dead and wounded.
| One poor fellow who was badly MANNED
| called to Mr.. Bryan and said: Il went to
| hear you to-day; am dying now, and want
| to shake your hand and say God bless
| you. If you possibly can, Mr.. Bryan, get
me a drink of water" Mr.. Bryan went
into the fast mail car, one end of which
was burning, and came out with the
drink of water, which he gave to the suf-
fering passenger. He brought out cushions
| for others of the injured and was every
Where present 10 minister 10 the Wants oI
! the suffering.
The engineer of the west-bound train had
received orders to meet the fast mail at
Emporla and was making up lost time
| These two are the fastest trains on the
Santa Fe system, and the west-bound train
| must have been running at a speed of at
| least forty miles an hour. The west bound
| express was going around a slight curve
| and met the fast mail probably within two
/ hundred feet. OF the seven or eight cars
| making up the Mexico and California ex-
press, only the mail, baggage and express
| and smoking cars were destroyed. The
! coach following the smoker was badly
| splintered. There were not more than a
| dozen passengers on the fast mail all in
one coach, and while none of them were
seriously injured. their shaking up was ter
rible Every set in the coach was torn
from the floor and many floor planks came
up with the seats. One man. John Sween-
| ey, was thrown over three seats and
through a window, but escaped with only
scratches and bruises. The other cars of
the fast mail a baggage and an express,
were wrecked.
First Reports Exaggerated.
EMPORIA. Kan. Sept. Sat midnight it
became apparent that the earlier estimates