The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-06-28
WENT DOWN TO DEATH
TRAIN CRASHED THROUGH Il TRES
TLE-SEVEN LIVES WE'RE LOST.

LerrlDic wreck on the WABASH ISOau--tAc-
cident Due to a Cloudburst--Au the Oc-
cupants of Postal Car Killed-Conduetor
Were Only Slightly Injured.
Kansas City, Mo-, June 27.-Seven
collins were forwarded to st. Louis to-
day from Missouri City. They contin-
ed the victims of last nights wreck on
the Wabash road. A correct list Of the
dead follows:
w. S. Mills, postal clerk st. Louis;
o. M. Smith, postal clerk, st. Louis;
Gustav A. Smith, a postal clerk, st.
Louis; Charles Winters, postal clerk.
ST. Louis; F. w. Brink, postal clerk, St.
Louis; Edward Grinrod, baggagemans
st. Louis; Charles p. Greasly, brake-
man, St. Louis.
The conductor OF the train, G. c.
Copeland of st. Louis, who was report
ed last night among the dead, is still
alive. He was removed this morning to
the railroad hospital at Moberly. With
fractured skull and several broken
ribs he fingers between life and death,
but the surgeons express a hope that he
will recover. Conductor Copeland was
supposed to be dead when taken from
the wreck and his body was laid in a.
row with the seven dead. A few min-i
utes later some one observed sign of
life and he was transferred to stretch
er and given every possible attention
OF the nineteen others injured no one
is in critical condition. Among them
all there Is not one broken limb, though
many Of them were thrown three-quar-
tiers of the length of the coaches In
which they were riding. Mrs. III. H.
Wilkinson Of Kansas City is the most,
seriously hurt. Two small bones Of her
left hand are broken and she suffered
q severe laceration Of the thigh as well
as bruises about the face and neck.
The wounds Of most Of the others arep
trivial.
All indications are that death came
to at least four Of the five mail clerks
almost instantly Their car pitched end
first through the break in the trestlei
and they must have been drowned I'M
the raging stream while in an uncon-
scious condition The remains of the
four were swept 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 res
cued, but he died a few minutes later.
Last night 1t was feared that there
were more bodies In the stream, but a
careful search to-day proved that the
fatalities are limited to those already
named. To-day but small stream was
flowing beneath the trestle. In ordina-
ry weather it is a dry creek bed.
The storm Of last night, which was
almost a cloudburst, had swollen the
little stream to a torrent. The food
carried away a wagon bridge a short
distance above the Wabash trestle, The
wreck of this bridge was hurled down,
upon the railroad trestle and carried
away row of wooden supports in the
center A neighboring farmer noticed
the perilous condition Of the trestla
and resolved to flag the passenger
train, which he knew was about dues
For nearly an hour he stood in the ter
rife downpour.
The storm was binding and the en-
gineer evidently could not see the sig
nal which the farmer so franticallY
waved across the track. The locomo-
tive struck the trestle. The engines
passed over, but the tender went
through with the crumbling bridge. The
baggage car toppled off on it's sides
while the mail car, which followed
was pitched into the stream end first,
Every life in this car was lost. The
smoker, next behind, followed. It waS
in this car that Conductor Copeland
was riding. The other occupants es-
capped serious injury. The chair car,
next behind, also plunged in upon tha
mass Of wreckage end first and all it's
passengers were thrown to the forward
end in a heap. The front end Of the
sleeper, next In the rear, jammed into
the protruding end of the chair end,
and was thus prevented from following1
Excelsior Springs coaches in the rear
| remained on the track.
| The scene of the wreck, which ia
| twenty-one miles northeast of Kansas
! City, near Missouri City station, was
visited to-day by many persons. The
wreck train worked all day repairing
the trestle and raising the shattered
ming as usual
| The postal authorities report that
probably nearly all of the mail carried,
on the train was lost or destroyed The
| Wabash train this evening carries all
of Kansas City's afternoon mail for the
| first time since the wreck