The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-09-09

the Party But Escaped Uniujured-His
Good Work For the Suffering
Kansas City, Mo-, September S-A
special to the Times from Emporia,
Kas., says:
One of the worst wrecks in the history
of the Santa Fe railroad occurred three
miles east Of here at 7.30 O'Clock tonight.
Twelve or fifteen persons were killed
and as many more badly hurt.
1t is feared that nearly all Of the seven
mail clerks perished in the disaster, ,ybut
so far only six bodies have been taken
from the wreck.
These are the the dead:
Jim Brennan, engineer. Topeka.
Nate Hollister, fireman, Topeka.
J. f. Souders, Kansas City, express
messenger, body almost consumed by
fire.
{ Vim. Frisby, engineer.
R. A. Doran, Emporia, postal clerk.
--- Gonzales, fire man west bound
train.
Unknown tramp.
j. 6. Bragman, Topeka.
Ben Walters, ST. Joseph, Mo. "a fireman
on the west bound train, is missing.
| Among the seriously injured are:
| Claude Holiday, Lawrence, express
messenger, both legs broken.
| D. G. Erler, Kansas City, express mes
senger, legs broken, will die.
John Daggan, Topeka, face smashed.
| J. T. Butler, county attorney, Chase
county, hip broken, may die
Nm. F. Jones, Kansas City, leg broken
and arms broken.
| B. p. Metik, Atchinson, badly bruised
| Philip Schuer, Kansas City, hip
crushed.
c. A. Van Welt, brakeman, Kansas
City, badly bruised.
| Wn-. Patrick, Kansas City, leg and arm
| G. d. Adams, City of Mexico, painfully
| bruised. a1T a \
Mike Sweeney, Gainesville, Tex, back
hurt.
The fast mail train going east and the
Mexico and California; express, west
bound, collided, head on The Mexico
and California express was pulled by
| two locomotives 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 es-
capped through the windows. The front
end of this Car was envelOped in vol
ume of sitting smoke and steam, rush
] ing up from the wreck below and the
rear door was jammed in the wreck of
= H. L1Ls H. l. a
| from the engines and the cars in the hole
and the smoking cars were quickly
| burned to ashes. In climbing out of the
smoking car several men fell through
| the riffs in the wreck below and it is i'm
possible 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. j. Bryan speak at the county
| fair in Burlingame. Mr.. Bryan himself
was on the train, but was riding in the
rear Pullman. He states that nothing
but heavy jolt was experienced by the
passengers in his coach. MIR. Bryan was
one of the most energetic mon In the
crowd of rescuers. He helped to carry out
the dead and wounded and gave the
greatest attention to their care One poor
\ fellow, who was badly MANNED, called
| to Mr.. Bryan, and said II went to hear
you today: L am dying ana WanG TO snake
your hand and say God bless you. If you
possibly can, Mr.. Bryan. get me q drink
Of water" Mr.. Bryan went into the fast
mail car, the end o. which was burning,
and came out with the drink of water
which he gave to the suffering passenger.
He brought out cushions for others of
the injured and was everywhere present
| to minister to the wants of the suffering.
OF the seven or eight ears making up
the Mexican and California express only
the mail, baggage and express and smok-
ing cars were destroyed. The coach fol-
lowing the smoker was badly splintered.
There were not more than q dozen passen-
gers on the fast mail, all in one coach,
and while none of them were seriously in
jured their shaking up was terrible.
Every seat in the coach was torn from
the floor and many floor planks came up
with the Seats
One man, John Sweeney, was thrown
over three seats and through window,
but escaped with only scratches and
bruises. The other cars of the fast mail
train, baggage and express were totally
wrecked.
1t is stated that the wreck was caused
by miscarriage of orders from the train
master At Emporia the East bound fast
train received orders to pass the Califor-
MIA express at Lange, seven miles east.
mother order was sent to Lange for the
California exp ress to take the siding