The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-12-27

this city from the scene of the wreck
and relief train with dozen London
doctors was disRatched to the scene.
The work of removing the dead and in
jured was at once began. Half a dozen
bodies were recovered within a short
time and a number of wounded removed
from the wreckage. Trains were made
up to send the wounded to London hos
pitfalls 81
Efforts to identify the wounded and
dead were attended with difficulty. The
dead bodies taken from the wreck were
frightfully mangled, some of them al
most beyond recognition.
Edward Boise of Prescott was taken
from the wreck alive, but he was so
frightfully injured that be died two hours
after being placed in the hospital in
this city.
J. A Lamonte. of Wyoming, was the
night operator at Watford, the telegraph
station nearest to the siding at Wan
stead.
Responsibility for the wreck has not
been fixed. 1t is said by some that it
came through a confusion in orders for
which Lamonte was responsible. La
monte was in some way injured in the
wreck.
The bodies taken from the wreck were
frightfully mangled, some of them al
most beyond recognition. The scenes at
tending the removal of the dead bodies
from the wreckage wre pitiful in the ex-
treme. Several families were on the train
and the air was filed with the anxious
cries of those separated from their loved
ones, not knowing whether they were
killed or saved.
Miss Nellie Geddes, Of Sarnia. was
among the killed. She was returning
with her sister, Beatrice Geddes, from a
visit to relatives in this city. Beatrice
was slightly injured and was brought
back to London on one of the early relief
trains. Not finding her sister here she
became convinced that she had been
saved and had gone to Sarnia and this
morning Beatrice left for Sarniai conf
dent that she would there meet her sis
ter Nellie.
Miss Lottie Lynch, Port Huron, Mich,
about % years old, died in hospital Lon
don.
The accident is said to have been due
to the failure of an operator to give or
ders to the express train to meet ths
freight at the station.
One of the passengers describes the
accident as follows:
I'VE were running at about 40 miles
an hour, when without the slightest
warning the two trains met with ter
rifle force On examination it was
found that the two engines were in the
ditch The baggage car was thrown on
top of the first class coach, instantly
killing a great many and pinning about
fifty other passengers in the debris. The
screams, means and prayers of the in
Jured were heartrending. One poor wo
man begged that her child be saved as
she was dying. The little one was care
fully taken from the wreck and will
probably recover The mother was
afterward released but only to die in o
few minutes
About thirty people We're killed and
forty badly injured, some of whom viii
die.
The trainmen as well as every pas
senger did all they could to relieve the
sufferings of the Victims
FAILED TO GIVE THE ORDERS.
Montreal, Dec. 27.=Superintendent
McGuigan of the Grand Trunk railway
says his information is that there are
about twenty-five killed and thirty in
+ jured, but z reliable list has not reach
ed him. He cannot understand, he says
how the operator who is charged with
/ the mistake made such a. blunder. He
is one of the Oldest and most reliable
+ operators, the superintendent added. He
vert in the service with the Great
/ Western railway in 1871 It appears he
failed to give the order to the passenger
train to meet the freight a the station
Everything possible has been done tc
aid the injured.