The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-29
WABASH RAILROAD WRECK
NUABEK or DEAD ESTIMATED TO
 BE- ABOUT EIGHTY.


 lision Occurred Engineer of tho Con - tinentaI Limited Held Responsib,e- o.
 Charged With Iis-reading Orders.
 Detroit, Nov. 2S--When night fell
 over the scene of yesterday evening" s
 awful calamity on the Wabash railroad
 near Seneca, Mich, those who had been
 investigatin the disaster had found
 nothing to alter the estimate of about
 eighty lives lost as result of the col
 lision. The list of injured will proba-
 bly, reach 125. Superintendent George M. Burns, of the division on which the
 wreck occurred, insists that the esti- mates are too high. T do not consid- er," said he, that the total death list will exceed twenty"
 However, in support of the larger es- timate, it is pointed out that fourteen passengers are now known to be dead. recovered and it is considered that the fragments of othet bodies now in the morgue at Adrian will account for many more than the twelve dead necessary to make up Superintendent Burns esti- mate of twenty. Tn addition to the comparatively few fragments which have been recovered and sent to the morgue, those who were early on the scene say many more pieces were dis covered which crumbled to powder while they were being removed.
 The official list of the dead given to the local papers shows the names of but ten dead and forty eight injured, but Detroit newspaper men who were at the scene of the wreck and talked with survivors of both trains say that the off1cal list does not bear out the statements of the passengers nor evil dence of the loss of life which they witnessed at the spot where the accf- dent occurred. The Free Press will say to- morrow that the loss of life was 100 in round numbers and that the state ments made by the Italian immigrants on the emigrant train bear out this as- sertion. These immigrants say that there were about 126 of their national ity on the train and that only about twenty-five of them escaped. While there are only ten of them known to be dead. 1t is asserted that the other nine ty are completely incinerated and that with the removal of the wreckage the bodies crumbled to dust which was scattered by the wind which swept across the country. If the names of these dead are ever known it will be when friends make injury for them and in many instances this seems highly improbable.
 Superintendent Burns told the Asso- ciated Press tonight that he was una- ble to tell the exact number of the Italian immigrants who were aboard the immigrant train, but he thought that there were not more than fifty. Passengers on the train and number of those who were early on the scene dispute this and say that the number was nearer eighty.
 Superintendent Burns has received no report as yet from Ticket Collector Flames, of the immigrant train who probably knows nearer than any one else about the number of Italians in the cars.
 Coroner Hamilton, of Adrian, impan- elled a jury this afternoon and will be- gin an inquest into the disaster to-mor- row morning.
 All of the jurors are prominent in the business affairs of the little city of Adrian. No steps have been taken as yet toward the arrest of Engineer Strong, whom Superintendent Burns declares is responsible for the collision and holocaust.
 trdi it7c n the other east met while going at al- most full speed one mile east of Seneca Mich, village eleven miles west of Adrian shortly after seven o'clock last night. The west bound train was known as No. 12 and was a regular, which, be- sides it's regular coaches, had several coaches filed with Italian immigrants going west from New York. The east bound train was known as No. 4. the Continental Limited. It was vesti buled train consisting of baggage car, coach and sleeper.
 The cause of the wreck was mis- of orders by Engineer Strong of the Continental limited.
 The order it is stated, read Pass at Seneca" but Strong understood it to read SanQ CTeeh. l ne COHuuClOT OL tHe train did not know that the engineer had misunderstood the order and SUD- posed that his traiA was going on a sid ing. Finding that 'the train was run hing rapidly, the conductor put on the air brakes himself but 1t was too late The two trains crashed together and the cars on the west-bound train were up in heap of ruins.
 Engineer Strong stated in positive .erms to an Associated Press reporter hat his order directed him to pass rains Nos. 13 and (the latter closely No. 13 from Detroit) at Sand Creek. Said Strong: "I saw the head fight of No 1S four or five miles before he collision occurred, but I supposed he train was sidetracked at Sand l rreek waiting for US to pass. The glare l # the powerful electric headlight made | t impossible to see the exact location | if the other train. My fireman and I i 10th jumped from the right hand { ,angway.'
 Strong and the fireman were both l lurled great distance, but although | cratched, cut and terribly jared they 1 were not seriously injured.
 The immigrants and other passengers n train Mo- 13 were crushed between | he splintered cars. If any escaped without injury it will be considered nivacle
 To add to the horror, the wreckage aught fire instantly and in a short time