The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) 1888-1909, 1903-11-04
In TRAIN WRECK.
FIFTEEN PERSONS KILLED
AND OVER FIFTY INJURED :

Train Carrying Football Team Col
lides With Coal Cars-Young
Women Act Like Heroes
Stout Hearts Are
Made to Weep.
Indianapolis, Oct. 31.-Fifteen
persons were killed and 81 injured,
some fatally, at 1920 today in a
collision between special passen-
ger train on the Big Four Railroad,
and freight engine with cut of
coal cars. The accident happened
in the edge of this city. The pas
senger train of IL coaches was car
rying 954 persons, nearly all Of
whom were students of Purdue
University and their friends from
Lafayette ao polls for the
annual footbafI ga between the
Purd ue team aud the Indiana Uni
versity squad for the state champi-
nHlSh "dS W AdfO DCCA
fought this afternoon.
In the first coach backtof tie en-
CINE we're the Purdue football team,
subplayers and managers. Three
players, the assistant coach, traine
and seven subplayers of the univer-
sity we're killed, and every one of
the SO ether persons in the car were
either fatally or seriously injured.
Of the 81 persons iIjur.d in the
wreck, 80 are seriously hurt, nearly
all having broken bones.
From the IL coaches were COM
ing the joyous cries of a thousand
rooters for Purdue, clad in gala
dress with colors streaming, while
in the front co ,ch sat 20 great mus
cular fellows trained to the bour,
on whom the hopes of a brilliant
victory on the gridiron were conf
IDENTIFY placed. Rounding curve
at the Eighteenth.street cut, Engin.
eer w. H. Schumacher found direct
ly in front of him the freight en-
CINE and coal cars moving slowly
from switch leading to a gravel
pit. HeSreytraed bis engine and
jumped. The crash hurled the pas
senger engine and the front coaches
against the steel freight cars loaded
with .coal, that ploughed their way
through and buried under pile of
wreckage weighing many tons fully
80 human beings.
the first car in which were the
players, was completely demolished,
the roof being torn away and fall
ing across car of coal, while the
body of the car was reduced to
kindling wood against the side. Of
the stesl freight cars. The second
coach, containing a brass band, was
partly tele scoped, and the third
coach was overturned and hurled
down 15-foot EN- ban kment. The
other coaches did not leave the
track. President Stone, of the Uni
varsity, with his family, was in the
fifth coach, and was not injured.
Immediately after the shock, the
passengers, men and women, began
the frantic work of tearing awaysthe
wreckage al q pulling out the dead
and dying classmates and friends.
The young women, dressed in
bright colors for the holiday, per.
formed heroic work. Though the
bodies were in several instances
horribly mangled, one completely
and one partially beheaded, ), they
took upon their laps the heads Of
the dying and injured and soothed
their suferings as best they could
until the surgeons arrived. Their
bloodstsined and grimy garments
were gloomy witnesses Of their he.
roism.
A general alarm was sounded,
and every assistance that could be
afforded was rushed to the wreck,
which was thres miles from the
business center, Big muscular stu
dents Wept aloud as they stood ov-
er the bodies OF their dead friends
and saw them writhing in pain.
70 add to the horror Of the situa-
ton. the wreckage caught fire. but
the dames-Were extingnisbed.
Or the surviving members of the
football team, who lived in all parts
of the country, G. w. Zimmerman
has the muscles of his right leg tern
at the knee; L. Y. Young, OF Lou.
isvile, is badly bruised on the
head; B. Miller is cut on the head;
Fullback Thomas received bad
cut on the right leg, and McCor.
mick, the sub-end, was injured a.
bout the legs. CO. Tansman, of
is. probably fatally in
lured. and is being cared for at the
home of DR.. Cunningham.
d ii hn L