The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-07-13
HIT BY FAST MAIL.
An Excursion Train on the Mis-
souri, Pacific Wrecked.
Was Standing on Curve When
Collision Occurred.
THREE DEAD, 81 HURT.
Baggage Car Was Being Used
as a Saloon.
The Tender PlOwed Through
THREE DEAD, 60 HURT.
The Tender PlOwed Through
the Crowd of Jewellers.

excursion over the Missouri Pacific
railroad from Kansas City to Sedalia.
1t was a head-on collision between the
St Louis fast mail due at the Union
station at 1890 in the forenoon and the
excursion train which pulled out of the
Union depot at $50.
The latter train was made up o.
eight coaches and a baggage car, and
all went we'll until Dead Mans curve
was reached. At this point the packing
in the piston of the locomotive draw
ing the excursion train blew out. COM
pletely deadening the machinery and
bringing the cars to a standstill.
The place where the accident oc-
CURED is three and one-half miles east
OF the Little Blue, and on a piece of
curved track which describes the letter
s. The grade at this point is very
heavy. and when the piston packing
blew out Engineer George McNay and
his fireman, John Berger, realized the
danger of a shutdown in such a
treacherous part of the road and they
tried to get over the grade and out of
the curve into the opening by sprink
ling the slippery track with sand. This
proved Intellectual, so the engine lever
was reversed and the necessary pre-
cautions taken to guard against COLI
slons from trains approaching from the
rear.
McVay and Berger got down out of
Hardy being cognizant of the fact that
the fast st. Louis mail was soon to put
IN appearance dispatch Brakeman c.
9. Crews to flag the train a mile dis
tant away. Crews had orders to puJ
out slow down flag a mile away, ana
he says he did so. and then came back
to the entrance to the curve to flag the
81. Louis train down when IL appeared.
The st. Louis train was in charge of
Engineer George Mcclure of Sedalia;
ms fireman was Jack Sutler, also of Sc
dalia. and the conductor was J. NJ.
Spangler of st. Louis. This train came
along thirty-six minutes late, and was
running at a speed of forty miles an
hour. Mcclure claims he did not see
the flag to slow down that Crews in
SlStS ne set out a mile down the road,
and that the first knowledge he had of
anything being wrong was when his train
was approaching the curve. Stimuli
taneously Mcclure and his fireman.
Sutler. saw the smokestack of the Grip
pied engine a hundred yards distant.
Sutler jumped from the cab and rolled
down a thirty foot embankment. Nc
Clure applied the air brakes, and as he
Ola so ne says he saw the brakeman
frantically waving the flag tor the train
to stop. This was at a point 100 yards
between the two trains. After applying
the air brake Mcclure says he stepped
to the south side of the cab to follow
his fireman in the jump, when he was
caught between the side of the cab and
tender. He had time to loosen himself
lIODl MS DOSlllOn DeIOIe the TWO IOcO-
motives came together. and to fall out
on the ground and roll down the en-
banlSment.
The rapidly approaching and ponder
Gus locomotive struck the dead engine
and drove the tender of the latter clear
through the baggage car. reducing it to
splinterS and burying dozens Of people
beneath the debris. The St Louis train
engine plowed out the south rail and
fell over the embankment and landed
ten feet away from its engineer. Nc
Clure. who lay on the ground unable to
get up.
The baggage car was used as a COM
missary adjunct to the excursion train
Beer and other refreshments were dis
pensed, and many of the eXcursiOnists
were shaking dice and having a merry
time unmindful of the danger. The first
intimation they had of the fate in store
for them was when the tender of the
locomotive came tearing into the coach
and they were impaled in the broken
timbers and being covered under the
debris. The force of the impact con-
tinued into the other cars in the rear
of the baggage car and seats were
knocked from their fastenings, and
passengers were thrown forcibly against
the sides and ends of the cars.
The cries and groans of the injured
filled the air, and CONSERVATION pre-
vailed. Those who could get out of the
baggage car did so and the train crew
and passengers who had escaped injury
turned IN TO release those VINO were III
the debris. Axes and saws were brought
into requisition, and the imprisoned ones
released and carried to places of safety
Three were taken from the debris dead.
DEAD.
CAL WINKELMAN. % years old, 1912
Russell avenue, St Louis.
ROY SWAIN, newsboy, IA years old,
1913 East Eighth street, Kansas City,
Mo.
UNKNOWN NEGRO.
INJURED.
Charles Reynolds, negro, residence 1915
East Nineteenth street, severe bruises.
Home in Sedalia.
Eugene Johnston. negro. Quincy, Ill,
face badly bruised
Jim Lightner, alley between Holly and
Prospect, leg crushed and head injured.
Ben Robinson negro. 425 Virginia av-
enue, Kansas City, Kan, leg crushed
and back injured.
Florence Robinson, 427 Virginia ave-
nue.. Kansas City. Kan, severe bruise
of the nose and other slight injuries.
c. Nelson, 1907 Lafayette. wounds
about the head and legs wrenched.
Ida Storrs. 4041s East Twelfth, slight
~ bruised.
slightly bruised about body and face
skinned.
Esther Czarlinsky $40 East Eleventh.
bruises and face abrasions.
A H. Winslow. "a years old, shipping
clerk for the Gille Manufacturing COM
pany. residence 1889 Jefferson street, Sc
riously injured. An artery of his left
leg was severed, causing great loss OF
blood. He also suffered wounds about
the head and body. He was taken to
the Missouri Pacific hospital in an am
bulance.
Matte Taylor. negress. 1926 Terrace.
severely bruised.
Walter Brown. 9o5 East Sixteenth
street. right ankle fractured.
NJ a. Jackson, 60I West Fourteenth
street, salesman for Simms Dry Goods
company. severe contusions of head.
r--'''- -'7rey - .f-s-s-7sA. 10. *
layer. Commissions of head left knee
sUrairee.
Charles Pratt sos East Twenty-sec-
ond street left knee sprained and body
bruised.