Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1903-11-10
Special Lafayette Train Strikes
Coal Cars Entering In
dianapoIis.
Coaches Holding College Boys Are
Smashed and Hurled Down
a Steep Bank.


train ct Riverside Park, crushing to
splinters a coach containing seventy stu
dents and friends, telescoping a second
coach and hurting it down a 15-foot EN-
baHkment with it's 100 occupants, and
upsettirg and smashing the third coach.
In the tangled masses of twisted iron
and broken wood the victims were man
gled, Nbeheaded or held prisoner till res
cuers could chop them out. AS fast as
the willing boys and men extricated the
corpses the unconscious and less serious
ly injured, and carried them to adjacent
grass plots, the girls and women among
tering to the sufferers. Holiday dresses
were stained with blood, but no one
thought of them. Agonizing groans filled
the air and these came no less from the
injured than from the more fortunate,
for all were close friends.
The collision took place at 1920
o'clock, while the students were enter
ing the city for the football game be-
tween Purdue and Indiana universities
for the State championship. \ switch
engine was backing a cut of coal cars
on the main track at a gravel pit, where
a deep cut obscured the track ahead of
each engineer. Blame for the disastrous
collision has not yet been placed.
eve had no orders to vacate the
rack" said Lon Akers, conductor of
the freight train. The fault, if there
is any, cannot fall on our shoulders. We
have orders to get out of the way of reg
ular trains. No orders were given us
that special was coming in"
Names of the Dead.
Following is the list of the dead:
Coats, ]. o., Berwin, Pa.
Drollinger, Gabriel S., Lafayette, Ind,
substitute; beheaded.
Fur, Charles, Veedersburg. Ind,
guard.
CRUDE, Charles, Butler, Ind, substi-
tutc player.
Hamilton, W. D., Lafayette, center
rush.
Hamilton, jay, Huntington, Ind, sub
stitute.
Howard, N. R.. Lafayette, president
of the Indiana Laundrymen's Associa-
ton.
McClair, Patrick, Chicago, trainer.
Powell, R. j., Corpus Christi, Texas,
end player.
Price, Bert. Spencer, Ind. substitute
Robertson, E. c., indianapolis, assist
ant coach and captain of team two years
ago.
Roush, Walter L.. Pittsburg, Pa, sub
stitute.
Shaw, c. L., Lafayette, Ind.
Squibb, Samuel, Lawrenceburg, Ind,
substitute.
Truitt, Sam lol, Noblesville, Ind, sub
stitute.
Details of the Collision.
The special train bore the Purdue foot
ball team-professors, students and
"rooters"-numbering altogether nearly
1900. 1t consisted of twelve coaches
and was running as the first section at
high speed.
In the first coach back of the engine
were the Purdue football team. substi-
trte players and managers. Three play
ers, the assistant coach, trainer and sew
en- substitute players of the university
team were killed and every one of the
fifty-three other persons in the car were
either fatally or seriously injured.
From the twelve coaches were coming
the joyous cries of 1,200 rooters for Pur-
due clad in gala dress, with colors
streaming, while in the front coach sat
twenty great muscular fellows, on whom
the hopes of brilliant victory on the
gridiron was confidently placed.
Around a curve at the Eighteenth
street cut Engineer w. H. Schumacher
found directly in front of him the freight
engine and coal cars moving slowly from
a switch leading out of the gravel pit.
He reversed his engine and jumped.
The crash hurled the passenger engine
and three front coaches against the steel
freight cars loaded with coal that plowed
their way through and buried under a
nile of wreckage weighing many tons
fully sixty college boys.
The first car, in which were the play
ers. was completely demolished. the roof
being torn awar and landing across a car
of coal. while he body of the ear was
reduced to kindling wood against the
side of the steel freight ear. The second
coach, containing the band musicians.
was partly teleseoped, while the third
coach was overturned and hurled down
coaches did not leave the track
President Stone of the university, with
his family, was in the fifth coach and
was not injured
Girls Assist the Dying.
Immediately after the shock the pas
sengers. men and women. began the
frantic work of tearing away the wreck
age and pulling out dead and dying class
mates and fraternity brothers. The
young women, dressed in bright colors
for the holiday, performed heroic work.
A general alarm was sounded and ev-
cry assistance the city could afford was
rushed to the wreck, which was three
miles f.om The business center. Surgeons
dashed up in automobiles, fire wagons,
ambulances, express wagons. undertake
ers' vehicles. private conveyances and
even delivery wagons were sent TO carry
away the dead and injured. While these
were being carried to the morgues and
hospitals the work of tearing away the
wreck and rescuing those pinned beneath
went on.
The Purdue football team played
against the Chicago University eleven on
Marshall field a few weeks ago and
made 8 good showing against the Ma
ICONS. They were TO have played in In
dianapoIis Saturday with the University
Of Indiana team. and the game was 10
settle the State championship.
Purdue is a member of the big nine"
college conference and the team. while
not counted in the race for the champion
ship OF the West. is 8 contender for sec
ondary honors-
Purdue Universits1s officials have an
nounced that the i.1sdtution win engage
In no more foseball games this year.