The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1899-08-11
A TROLLEY ACCIDENT
A Car Falls into a Pond and Nearly
Forty Persons Are Killed.
PRECIPITATED INTO DEEP WATER
A Gang Plank Breaks and at Least Twenty
Persons Lose Their Lives-A Steamer
Narrowly Escapes Foundering-
Four Miners Awful Fall.

Bridgeport, Conn, Aug. 7.-Nearly
40 persons were killed by an accident
on the Stratford extension of the Shell
ton Street Railway company at four
o'clock yesterday afternoon, when a
loaded trolley car went'oH the trestle
over Peck's mill pond at Oronoque,
about six miles north of Bridgeport,
and sank in the flats 40 feet below.
Thus far 80 people are known TO be
dead and several more injured. Only
two persons are known to have
escaped unframed. 1t is believed
that there were 43 passengers
on the ear, but the indicator
was removed by conductor of an.
other car and spirited away, so that at
present it is impossible TO state accu.
rately the number aboard. The trestle
is 40 feet long, made of iron, with
stone foundations and was not protect
ed by guard rails. South of the trestle
is an incline, down which the car ran
at high rate of speed. After it ran
onto the trestle for about ten feet, the
trucks left the rails and then the
car continued on the ties for about IS
feet, when it went off the trestle and
dropped into the pond below, overturn-
ing completely and upending. When
the car struck, the four-ton motor and
the heavy trucks crushed into il. in
stantlv killing many of the passengers.
The Stratford town hall, where the
bodies were taken. was soon besieged
by more than 1000 persons. some OF
whom had relatives or friends among
the dead and the deputy sheriffs in
charge had much difficulty in handling
the crowd of weeping women and
anxious men.
PRECIPIrATED INTO DEEP WATER.
Bar Harbor, Me. Aug. "A score of
persons were killed yesterday by the
collapse of the gang plank of the
Mount Desert ferry. Seventeen were
drowned and three died from the ter
rible experience of immersion in the
water and injuries while struggling for
life. The Maine Central railroad
yesterday ran excursions TO Bar Har-
Dor from all sections of its line in
Maine, the attraction being the war
ships which were expected yesterday.
When the excursion train from Bangor
arrived at the ferry there was rush
for the steamer Sappho. The first few
passengers had crossed the gang plank
safely and it is estimated that 200 people
were massed on the plank. Suddenly
they felt the plank give way beneath
them. The long timber supporting the
plank broke in the middle and a strug-
Cling, screaming mass of humanity
was plunged into the water, 10 feet be-
low the wharf. After the first moment
of stupefaction the work of rescue be-
gan. Ropes and life preservers were
thrown to the crowd but in the panic
people in the water clutched one an
other and many sank thus in groups in
a death grip. The freighthouse at the
ferry was turned into morgue. the
bodies being taken there for identified
ton as fast as recovered. BY noon II
had been recovered. Three other per.
sons We're taken on board the Sappho
and died on the way to Bar Harbor.
The exact number of dead will not be
known for some time yet, as a strong
tide sweeps under the pier and some
bodies may have been carried away
by it.
NARROWLY ESCAPED FoUNDERING.
South Haven. Mich, Aug. THE
passenger steamer City of Grand Rap
ids with 200 persons on board, narrow
ly escaped laundering in midlalSe Sat
urday night. The steamer was bound
for Milwaukee and was 80 miles out
when large amount OF water was dis.
covered in the hold. The water was
pouring in from many leaks and TO
make the situation more desperate the
engineer was unable to start the pumps
going When the water rose until il
was within two inches Of the fires the
steamer was turned around and headed
for South Haven. The passengers were
awakened and told to prepare them
selves for what might happen A wild
scramble for life-saving apparatus fol-
lowed. just before the fires We're put
out the engineer succeeded in rigging
up one of the pumps, which held the
water in check until port was reached
again at six O'clock yesterday morn
ing,
ELECTRIC CARS COLLIDE.
Saunderstown, Il. L., Aug. Two
cars collided yesterday on the Seaview
electric road running between Wick.
ford ana NmTagansett pier Merritt
Lyman Abbey, a motorman. was killed.
OF the 40 passengers only one was in
iured, Nissan, Il. Brown, of Providence.
Both cars We're set on fire by the cleo
trio current and totally destroyed
FOUR MINERS AWFUL FALL.
Houghton, Mich, Aug. 7.-One
miner was killed and two others fatally
and one seriously injured yesterday in
the Quincy mine. The men were work.
ing on ladder on the forty-ninti
level, repairing the timbering The
ladder gave way and the men fell a
distance of 800 feet.
Pa re In "a