Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-11-28

Identified. Only six bodies have actually
been recovered. A small pile OF crisp,
blackened fragments that covered two
% stretehers were all that could be found of
the others.
The scene of the holocaust presented
bleak and desolate appearance this morn
ing. Strewn along both sides of the track
for five hundred feet were car wheels,
brake beams and such other parts of the
wrecked coaches would not burn En-
gines 50 and 69 We're lying in the ditch on
the right hand of the road, veritable scrap
heaps Broken cars. some of them daubed
with the blood of their last occupants, were
scattered about and being used as cushions
by those huddled around the open fires
about the scene. Farmers living in the
vicinity drove to the scene, in many cases
bringing their wives and families Win
them. After viewing the debris scattered
along the track they would walk through
the fields to the house where Giovanni Fol-
onaro. one of the emigrants who escaped
from of the burning cars, was tossing
on a bed and muttering in his native
tongue.
q When the first relief train arrived on the
scene last night from Adrian, six of the
ears in train No Is were burning so fierce
Iy that the relief party could not get with
ing several hundred feet of them. They
were the baggage car, the emigrant cars.
two coaches and a chair car.
There was nothing to do but stand back
and wait until the fire burned itself out. 1t
= was past midnight before a search of the
= As soon as the heat had subsidized sufficient
ly scores of men began delving into the
mass. AS 1t was slowly turned over, small
crisp pieces of those who had persisted in
the hames were occasionally found. the
largest portion of any body found was a
terribly burned trunk.
Bodies Absolutely Cremated.
The heat had been 50 intense that the
cars and their human freight had been re-
duced to a blackened powder that was
. blown about for hundreds of feet by tie
breeze. Inside of two hours the iron works
of the cars had been hauled into the ditch
at either side of the road.
The first relief party on the scene arrived
from Adrian, Mich, fifty-five minutes after
work on the second coach of train No. f.
which was telescoped by the collision and
reduced to splinters- The wreck of the
coach was damned into space hardly
fourteen feet square. From the ruins of
this car the bodies of four men and
women were pulled out.
Train No. :, which was waiting on the
sidctrack al Sand creek, having followed
No. l.; from Detroit, was run up to the
scene as soon as the accident was reported
there. and on this train practically al the
injured from the west-bound train were
loaded and started for the companys hes
pital at Peru. Ind.
A relief train from Montpelier. Ohio, took
more of the injured from the east-bound
train and also started for Peru with them.
PENDING the arrival of these ambulance
trains. the injured fast as they were ex-
tricated. We're placed in the two sleepars
attached to train IL, which were not wreck
ed. or taken to the house of Ben HIss,
which Is within 100 yards of where the col
HSiOG occurred.
At :; O'Clock the bodies of the dead. to-
gether with the few awful fra gmentS that
had been dug out from the burning cars,
were loaded aboard a car and taken back
81 To the mOrgue at Adrian.
At i:15 the body of Fireman Calvin Bal
dorf was discovered, damned into the
wrecked cab of his engine No 151. From
the position of his body he had evidently
been IN the act of feeding the furnace
when the two trains came together. His
body was badly crushed but still recogniza-
bile.
At o'clock the wreckers removed the
last piece of wreckage from the tracks. 1t
was engine 15l. Although considerably
warped and bent its wheels were still true
enough so that they kept the track after
the engine had been pulled back on the
rails. and it was lowed to the Seneca side
track.
RInme Laid on Strong.
Superintendent Burns today said that
Engineer Strong of train No 4 was re-
sponsiblc. His orders said he. clearly
directed him to pass train Is at Seneca.
He evidently forgot them. for he did not
stop there, and the collision resulted"
Superintendent Burns estimated the
ishaHciaa loss to the Wabash at S4S, COO
= The three engines piled themselves in
o lndiscrlmInate heap. with the leading en-
CINE of No Is above the other two The
first three coaches of the train were so
tetescoped that they were nothing but a
mass of debris One immigrant car was
compressed into compass of about eight
Ieet in length on the track. The flames
started below the immigrant cars, and here
the heaviest loss occurred, it being esti-
mated that about fifty persons-men, wo-
and CshiidrpD-ypre l,x-
the holocaust The loss in the rest of the
train was not heavy, the shock being borne
10y the forward cars
In No. 4 the engine was followed by an
accommodation car. This was stout ard
bore the shock bravely. The leading day
coach of the train. however. telescoped
ana burned. In this were about fifty pas
ScnEers The brunt of the early rescue
work was done here. and probably half OF
these passengers were rescued or escaped
Train No. IL carried sevCnty-five immi-
grants from Italy bound for the coal mines
AT 1rinita. Col. Not more than half Of
these escape
The train was double header. drawn
10y engine No -. Engineer Sam ]. Work.
Fireman Dowd, both Of Detroit. The sec
"nd engine was No. 151. Engineer Robert
Parks. Fireman Cal Batdorf both OF Ash
ley. Both engineers escaped alive but
their fircmen met death i'm the o,i,.erjnp
mass OF iron and steel Engineer Work 10
IN great pain from scaiding and scalp
wounds. He is unable To talk
Engineer Parks. story.
Engineer Parks OF the rear engine of No
Il had his left leg broken and face cut. He
describes the collision as follows:
W" had orders to meet train No. at
Seneca and were running about thirty miles
an hour The track is straight for several
miles and | could see the headlight of No
coming when We were about three miles
west Of Sand creek. | put on the air
kos nd K..
time To- jump.
me three engines all piled up together
was thrown through the roof or window
OF IN" cab The engine on train No 4 fell
:" thr S3uth ana our two piled up together
1 picked myself up on the bank and tb.n
ah"thtr man crawled up To me. Ii was En-
sineer Work. Both our firemen must have
been killed"
Only "A feyr II the