The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-01
PAIL OF DEEP GLOOM
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ~

IHe WnOle CITY Walteus awe stflchens IoT
the details of the affair Many had rela-
tives or dear friends on the train and the
suspense was almost unbearable. Everyone
turned to the Denison Hotel the headquar-
ters for the Purdue crowd, where scores
of students from that college had already
gathered, having come in on earlier trains.
The excitement at the Denison was intense
and unnerving. A number of young women
from Lafayette, wearing the Purdue colors,
gave way to their grief as soon as it was
learned that at least a dozen had been
killed and perhaps as many more fatally
injured. few who had been passengers on
the Inflated train, but escaped uninjured,
came to the city on street cars and went
at once to the Denison, where they gave
the first details of the accident. 1t was not
until then that the enormity Of the horror
was fully realized, and even then there
were many who almost refused to believe
that anything so terrible could have hap
pened.
WIRES. KEPT BUSY.
The first thought of the young men and
women Of Purdue who had escaped death
serious injury in the accident, and also
Of those who had come to the city on
earlier trains. to telegraph to their
homes the news of their own safety. The
telegraph offices were fairly besieged.
A few minutes after the accident the In
with laughing faces at every window,
megaphones roaring and a band striking
UP lively air. The students piled off the
special in tumultuous hilarity, yelling for
old Indiana and shouting defiance at Pur-
due. Then the news broke upon them with
stunning force. The strains of the band
died away, the megaphones were silenced.
loud voices became hushed and strident
yells and ringing songs gave way to shocked
inquiries and low-voiced expressions of con-
sternation.
The fierce rivalry between the two
for supremacy in past years had accentu-
ated almost to the point Of bitterness, was
forgotten in an instant. The hand Of death
had brushed away all puny jealousies, an
tagonisms. petty grudges and animosities.
Nothing remained but the elemental feel
ings of human sympathy. grief and COM
miseration. The thought that young men
whose names had become famous in the
college world as students and gridiron
heroes. splendid specimens of manhood.
who but a few brief hours before were
glorying in vigorous health and strength,
were now stretched on marble slabs, many
of them so mangled as to be unrecogniza-
BILE, was so paralyzing as to be inconceiv-
able.
BLOW FELL HEAVILY.
OF all the students. save those who had
lost relatives, the members Of the college
brotherhoods. the Greek-letter fraternities.
felt the blow most keenly. Several Of the
dead boys were members of one or another
Of these closely-knit societies, the relations
of which are only less intimate than those OF
the family, and their brothers in fraternai
life could hardly have been more grief
stricken had they been brothers in blood.
Sadly significant were the little jeweled
badges, the insignia of different fraterni-
ties, as they were worn draped with crepe
on waistcoat or lapel.
Hundreds of Purdue students converted
their college colors into badges Of mourn
ing The ribbon of old gold which few
moments before had been streaming with
the black-a color which then was asso-
ciated with thoughts of triumph and VIC
tory rather than those Of death and grief
was sorrowfully removed and only the
Indiana students. with beautiful sympathy.
discarded their steamers Of crimson and
white and, donning badges Of crepe. showed
that death had made the States two
great schools one.
A few minutes after the first rumors Of
the accident had been confirmed. thou
sands Of people started for the scene of the
wreck, using every manner of conveyance.
The street cars were overtaxed, even after
the company had put many extra cars on
tho North indianapolis line which passes
within a square and half of the scene.
Buggies. carriages. automobiles and bicy-
,cles crowded the street, while hundreds
of people walked. At least five thousand
people watched the CHASTITY labors of the
wrecking crew, the crowd being constantly
augmented and necessarily pushing for
ward to gain a closer view of the scene Of
carnage. The police were forced to stretch
ropes, attached to stakes driven deeply
into the ground, to keep the crowd from
interfering with the railroad men and the
volunteers in the relief party.
FASCINATED BY THE SIGHT.
The great crowd gazed tx horror. fasci-
mated by the awfulness of the sight, as
one by one the broken bodies of the foot
ball players and students were carried
from the ruins. Many of the women could
not bear the sight and turned away. Ex-
pressions of pity and sympathy were heard
everywhere, particularly when some boy,
with blood flowing from gashes in his face