Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-09-03

road from Bethlehem en- route to Phil
adelphia.
At 6: IS the milk train drew up at the
milk platform at Hatfield, and in less
than two minutes the special excursion
train, running at the rate of thirty-five
miles an hour, crashed into the rear of
the milk train. The locomotive plough
ed through the two passenger coaches
and crushed them as if they were egg
shells. The milk car Immediately in
front was also badly wrecked. Four
persons, Godfrey Kaelin, his daughter,
Mamie, Harold Lands and William
Blackburn, on the passenger car of the
milk train, were almost instantly killed.
Fortunately there were very few per-
sons on this train.
The excursion train was picture Of
IndescribabIe Horror.
The locomotive was mass of bent and
broken iron and firmly held the bodies
of its engineer and fireman beneath its
great weight. Behind the engine six of
the ten cars were also mass of wreck
age. The first car was broken in twain,
and the other five cars were thrown on
their sides, completely demolished.
Nine persons were killed in the first
two cars, and the others in the coaches
were badly MANNED. AS soon as the
crash came terrible cry rose from the
smashed cars and those who had not
been injured quietly crawled or jumped
from the cars and went to the assistance
of the injured. Many we're pinned down
by wreckage and had to be freed by the
liberal use of axes. With three or four
exceptions the dead were killed Instant
ly, the others dying on their way to the
hospitals. All the injured were first
taken to a shed at the Hatfield station,
and the dead were
Removed to a Barn.
Messengers We're sent to the nearest
villages for physicians, and relief
train was telegraphed for from Bethle
hem. Fifteen doctors and a half dozen
nurses with a special train was sant
from Bethlehem, but before it reached
the scene of the wreck it was signalled
to return to Bethlehem, as special
carrying nearly all the injured had
started for the hospital at that place.
On the run from Hatfield to the hospital
three Of the injured died. Great trou-
BILE was experienced in keeping the
relatives away from the injured on The
train so that the doctors gathered from
near Hatfield could attend to the
wounded.
The special train arrived at Bethle-
hem at 1870 and was met by full 5000
people, all clamoring to get a bit of
news of the wreck or trying to learn
whether loved ones were
Among the Killed.
The news of the wreck had reached
Bethlehem at o'clock and spread6ike
wildtire. All the police of the town
were gathered at the station, and it
was with great difficulty that the in
jured were removed to the waiting am
balances and other vehicles which con-
veyed them to the hospitals. All dur
ing the day people from Allentown,
CataSaqua and other places came pour
ing into Bethlehem, and confusion
reigned throughout the day. The sec
ond section of the excursion, made up
lehem and Allentown, left soon after
the first section, but was tagged before
it reached Hatfield. As it could not get
through on account of the blocked
tracks it was returned to Bethlehem,
and there was great rejoicing from Ine
narrow escape from it's occupants from
the catastrophe.
The coroner of Montgomery county
visited the wreck early and spent the
rected the removal of the dead to Lans-
dale, a short distance south of Hatfield.
He promises a rigorous investigation
into the horror.
There are conflicting stories as to re-
sponsibility for the accident One YER
sion is that the engineer of the excur-
sion train had been warned at Souder-
town, the station above Hatfield, that
a milk train was few minutes ahead
of him. Another story is that the train
despatcher's Office in Philadelphia was
at fault. The trainmen refuse to talk
of the accident.
Fifteen hundred tickets had been sold
for the excursion to the seashore, and
it was to have been the last Of the sea-
son.
Wellington H. Rosenberg, of Lans-
dale. Representative in the Pennsyl-
vania House of Representatives, was
on the milk train. He had his jaw
broken and was also internally injured.
His condition is serious
Four Killed.
SYRACUSE. N Y. September 2-The