The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-12-27

when the fast Pacific express flying west
ward at the rate of fifty miles an hour
and crowded to its capacity with pas
sengers retursing to- their homes from
holiday visits, crashed into an east-bound
freight :, .-..<- b. ~ = .&~ ..., -.
The latest estimate of the fatalities is
thirty killed and thirty-fve or more in
J1red. - =, ' 80
The darkness of night and the raging Of
a blizzard added horrors to the wreck.
Fortunately. the fire horror was averted..
A fire broke out. in the wreckage Of the
day coach but it was smOthered with
snow and coats which were thrown on it
before it gained any Roadway. The ex-
press was delayed two hours last night
by the heavy travel and at Wanstead it
was speeding to make UP time. The
freight was working slowly east under
orders to take the switch at Wanstead
and allow the express to pass. In the
binding snowstorm neither engineer saw
the other train approaching, apparently,
and the freight had just commenced to
pull in on the siding when the passenger.
train came up.
The shock was awful. The trains came
together squarely head on. In a second
the baggage and express cars of the pas
senger train telescoped into the day coach.
This day coach was reduced to splinters
and fragments back to the last three win
dows. It was crowded with human be-
ings and the resultant loss of life and
injury was narrowing. Fire that broke out
was quickly smothered but the fire was
scarcely worse danger than the cold.
For three hours or more wounded and
MANNED passengers were pinned under
meath Wreckage, crying piteously for help
while they suffered from exposure to the
elements.
Exposure undoubtedly fastened the
death of some of the more seriously In
jured and caused the death Of some of
those who might have been saved if. it
had been only, a question of extricat ting
them from, the Wreckage. 0
The Pullman cars stayed on the track
and were comparatively uninjured, al
though the passengers in them were Sc
verely shaken. AS. soon as possible a re-
lief train with dozen London doctors
was dispatched from this city to the
wreck. Half dozen bodies were recov-
cred within a short time and a number Of
wounded removed from the wreckage.
Trains were made UP to send the wounded
to London hospitals.
Efforts to identify the wounded and dead
were attended with difficulty The dead
bodies taken from the wreck were fright
fully 1nangled, some of them almost be-
yond recognition. The scenes attending
the removal of the bodies were pitifu1 in
the extreme. Several families were on
the train and the air was flied with cries
of those. separated from their loved ones,
not knowing whether they were killed or
| saved. Edward Boise Of Prescott was
taken from the wreck alive, but he was so
frightfully injured that he died two hours
after being placed in the hospital in this
city.
J.. A. Lamonte Of Wyoming was the
night operator at Walford, the telegraph
station nearest to the siding at iWanstead.
| Responsibility for the wreck has not been
fixed. It is said by some that it came
through a. confusion in orders for which
| Lanonte was responsible. Lamonte was
| In some way injured in the wreck. Those