The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-11-19

| New York, Nov. 18.-In the gloom OF
the rails of the Pennsylvania railroad
early this morning between Jersey City
and Harrison, a belated suburban train
dashed into a gang of workmen, killing
eleven and iniuring four. Five others
! had remarkable escapes All the vic
tins lived in Jersey City.
The accident happened two and a
half miles west of Jersey City, just be
yOnd the Hackensack river bridge. At
that point there are four tracks. two
devoted to passenger and two to freight
traffic. At the north are the shops and
tracks of the Delaware, LackaWanna. &
Western railroad.
Foreman Quirk took out a gang of
nineteen men at a. m. TO repair track
No. the WeStbound freight track-at
that place. Quirk saw that the fog
might mean danger. so ne sent ahead
two men, Lawless and DOherty, to give
warning Of approaching trains. Law
less was to go west and DOherty east
and cover all the tracks. They We're to
eshout warnings at the approach Of
trains The passenger tracks were kept
busy with incoming trains and the
smoke and steam from these trains
helped TO make the atmosphere more
dense.
Suddenly. sbout $780, there was
shout from Aawless, who was the adj
vance guard of the gang. Train on
No. g he cried. 1t was an eastbOund
freight train, that came along slowly.
| leaving behind it a heavy pail of
smoke. The men, who, were scattered
along the track jumped out Of the way.
Almost al of them jumped over to
track No. 1, the eastbound passenger
track. The heavy smoke enveloDed
them, and the men, many of them new
hands On the ROAD, Shivered with fright,
for they could not see and could scarce
| ly hear the approaching trains that fol-
lowed TIE freight.
I4awless. too, had jumped across to
track No. l, keeping all the time q
| sharp lockout. Suddenly there was a.
rumble of wheels md the Shrek of a.
whistle. The Milestone local, delayed by
! fog, was coming along at the rate of
| forty miles an hour. LawlesS was
! struck and thrown thirty feet away,
mangled and bleeding. On went the
| train. Engineer Van NOStrand had
| scarcely noticed the mans body flying
| through the air, when the engine struck
| Doherty; then it plOwed into the mass
| of covering men, who stood huddled
| together on the track
| 1T was an awful sight" said the en-
| gineer, later. There was a mass of
| legs and arms and heads flying through
| the air. / was drenched with blood. I
knew that something terrible had hap
I Dered, and put on the air brakes as
/ hard as possible.
when the train came to a standStill
| the passengers rushed out. The track
was covered with blood. The meadows
and the track looked like a battlefield
| covered with bodies. The shrieks of the
dying drowned the cries of the Mortified
! passengers. Women tainted and men
turned away in horror. OF the nineteen
/ men, nine were dead and six wounded.
Some one telephoned quickly to Jersey
| City. Many Of the bodies still writh-
ing in mortal agony, were placed on
the train and borne to the city. Two Of
the wounded died. on the way"
a relies train brought back the 9TH
ers. When the engine which struck the
labOrers reached the Pennsylvania de-
pot in Jersey City the cow-catcher was
| red with blood from the men killed. A
boy, after the engine had stopped,
picked up a hand from the cow catcher
1t had been severed from one Of the
victims and had been carried from the
meadows to the depot on the cow
catcher.