The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-11-20
THIRTY LONE MEN KILLED.
SHOCKING ACCIDENT ON THE
 BIG FOUR ROAD.
Freight and Work Trains Crash-con- &uotoF Disobsys Orders and Causes ColIision-RemaIns of Twsnty-six Vic- tIms Recovsred-sorrowfu Scenes About She wreok-onIy Four of One Crew Left.

Peoria, Ills, Nov. 1s.-Thirty-one men were killed and at least fifteen in jured in a head-cn collision between a freigth train and a work train on the Big Four railway, between MackinaW and Fremont. this afternoon. Bodies of twenty-six of the victims have been taken from the wreck, which is piled thirty feet high on the tracks. Five bodies yet remain buried under the huge pile of broken timber and twisted iron and steel.
 On bank at the side of the track lie the bodies of the victims, cut, bruised and mangled in a horrible manner. So far only twelve have been identified, the remaining nineteen be- ing unrecognizable even by friends of men known to have been in the wreck.
 All the dead and most of the injured were members of the work train. The crews on both engines jumped in time to save their lives. The collision oc- cured in deep cut, at the beginning of a sharp curve, neither train being visible to the crew of the other until they were within fifty feet of each other. The engineers set the brakes, sounded the whistle and leaped from their cags, the two trains striking with such force that the sound was heard for miles.
 A second after the collision the boiler of the work train engine exploded, throwing heavy iron bars and splinters of wood 200 feet.
 -4EE f.s Conductor John W. Judge of Indian apolis, who had charge of the freight train, received orders at Urbans to wait at Mackinaw for the work train which was due there at 2:40 D. m. In stead of doing this he failed to stop, The engineer of the work train, George Becker, had also received orders tc k pass one freight at Mackinaw and was on the way to that station. The work train was perhaps five minutes late and was running at full speed. A telephone message to Fremont brought special train with four physicians to the scene in less than half an hour. At the same time another train arrived from Pekir bearing Superintendent c. H. Barnard and three physicians.
 After working two hours the remains of twenty-six men were taken out.
 The workmen had been engaged ir laying steel rails at different points along the track and three of the freight cars were heavily loaded.
 The injured were taken to the two cabooses of the relief trains, where temporary hospitals were improvised
 and their wounds taken care of.
 One caboose was taken to Morton I while the other was atken to Fremont
 The dead will lie on the bank all nigh
 or until the arrival of the coroner o Tazewell county in the morning Tht
 dead are residents of neighborins
 towns and the scenes about the wrecl
 this evening were beyond description
 Wives and children of men who were
 missing thronged around asking If theil
 husbands or fathers had been killed
 Out of thirty-five men who constituted
 the crew of the work train only fou
 are living and two of these are serious
 ly injured. Wreckage is strewn alons the track for a distance of nearly POI feet and it will be twenty-four hour before it can be cleared.