Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1898-11-24
FOUR BADLY INJURED.
Friphtful Accident on the PENN
sylvania Railways Tracks.
FIVE MEN ESCAPED UNHURT.
when the Engine Drawing the Train
Arrived In Jersey City the Hand of
One of the Victims was Found on
the CoXcatcher.

New York, Nov 19.-In the gloom of
smoke, storm and fog that darkened
the rails of the Pennsylvania railroad
Friday morning between Jersey City
and Harrison, "a belated suburban train
dashed into a gang of workmen, kill
ing l / and injuring four Five others
had remarkable escapes. All the VIC
tins lived in Jersey City.
The accident happened two and
half miles of Jersey City, just beyond
the Hackensack river bridge. At that
point there are four tracks, two de-
voted to passenger and two to freight
traffic. At the north are the shops
and tracks of the Delaware, Lacka-
wanna & Western railroad. Foreman
Quirll took out a gang of 10 men at 8
a. IN. to repair track No. 4, the west
bound freight track, at that place.
Quirk saw that the fog might mean
danger, so he sent ahead two men,
Mike Lawless and Tom Doherty, to
give warning of approaching trains.
Lawless was to go west and Doherty
east and cover all the tracks. They
were to shout warnings at the APP
proach of trains. The passenger tracks
were kept busy with incoming subur-
ban trains and the smoke and steam
from these trains helped to make the
atmosphere more dense.
Suddenly about $50 there was a
shout from Lawless, who was the adj
vance guard of the gang. Train No.
g." he cried. 1t was an eastbound
freight train that came along slowly,
leaving behind it pail of smoke. The
men who were scattered along the
track Jumped out of the way. Almost
all of them jumped over totrack No. l,
the eastbound passenger track. The
heavy smoke enveloped them and the
men, many of them new hands on the
rord, shivered with fright, for they
could not see and could scarcely hear
the approaching trains that followed
the freight. Lawless too had jumped
across to track No. l, keeping all the
time a sharp lookout.
Suddenly there was a rumble of
wheels and the Shrek of a whistle.
The Milestone local was coming along
at the rate of 40 miles an hour. Law
less was struck and thrown 30 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 men huddled together on the
track ut was an awful sight" said
the engineer later. There was a mass
of legs, arms and heads flying through
the air. / was drenched with blood.
knew that something terrible had hap
pened and put on the air brakes as
hard as possible"
When the train came to a standstill
the passengers got out. The track
was drenchcd in blood. The meadow
and track looked like battlefield COW
cred with bodies. The shriel<s of the
dying drowned the cries of the horri-
fed passengers.
When the engine which struck the
laborers reached the Pennsylvania de-
pot in Jersey City, the cowcatcher was
red with blood from the men killed. A
boy, after the engine had stopped,
picked up a hand from the cowcatcher.
1t had been severed from one of the
victims and had been carried from the
meadows to the depot on the cow
catcher