Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1904-08-11
DROWNED LIKE RATS.
Two Carloads of Human Freight
Plunged into Rigging Torrent.
Engineer Was Running the Train
Cautiously When the Trestle SPAN
ming Dry Creek Near Eden,
Col, Gave Way.

Pueblo, Col, Aug. 1.-TWO carloads
Of human freight plunged into the
raging torrent that destroyed the tres
tie over the usually dry arroyo known
as Steele's hollow, near Eden, about
eight o'clock Sunday evening. Two
sleeping cars and the diner stopped
at the brink OF the hungry chasm
filled with boiling. seething current
that quickly snuffed out probably 100
lives. So quietly had the catastrophe
been enacted that the occupants Of the
three cars remaining on the track did
not realize that an accident had &C.
Cured until they alighted from the
train and they were utterly powerless
to render any assistance to the VIC
Tins who had disappeared in the rush
ing waters.
On the lookout for danger, warned
by the squally clouds and heavy rains
to the north, Engineer Charles Hind
man was running cautiously, about Is
miles an hour as he approached the ar
roya, which was spanned by bridge
90 feet in length. The condition of the
bridge was not known until the loco
motive. one of the monster passenger
type. had nearly crossed. Fireman
Frank Mayfeld, with a large torch
that the engineer and the fireman
had been using to ascertain the condi-
tion OF the track, was in the gangway
When Engineer Hindman felt the
tremor in the great machine and
caught a glimmer on the water, he
shouted his last words: Put out
that TORCH" evidently thinking that
in the accident he felt certain
was coming, the flames would serve to
spread fire. But before Mayfield could
obey, while the words were still on the
lips of the doomed man and his hand
seeking the mechanism controlling the
air, the bridge gave way as If II had
been a stack Of kindling wood and the
locomotive dropped with the kissing
Of steam through 30 feet of food to
the bottom of the arroyo, crosswise to
the track.
The baggage car, smoking car and
chair car followed the locomotive into
the stream and were swept away. All
the occupants of these cars, save three
men, persisted, and had not the roof OF
the chair car burst asunder. none
would have escaped. The fireman, as
the locomotive went over, was thrown
out and. managing to grasp a piece OF
wreckage from the bridge, fioated with
that to curve made by the caving
bank and crept out of the water. He
ran toward Eden, meeting on the way
Operator F. NJ Jones and his wife, who
had already started up the track. They
had seen the headlight of the approach
ing train minute before and then had
witnessed it disappear with ominous
suddenness. Notify Pueblo" came the
voice of the running man. The trains
gone down and everybody is killed"
Even as he spoke. relates the operator,
there were cries coming from the dis
lance. The two men ran TO where the
bridge had been. to search, but in vain.
for victims of the disaster. When
they reached the spot all cries for help
had ceased.
Relief trains with physicians, wreck
and pile driving outfits and scores of
workmen were hurried from the city.
The first train from the wreck came in
shortly after midnight with j. NJ. Xii.
lin, of Pueblo, whose escape was mi
raculous; H. S. Gilbert, Tony Fisher
and Fireman Mayfield. These were the
four men in the midst of the wreck who
escaped. When dawn came the Won
der grew that four had been permit
ted to emerge from the raging torrent
with breath still in their bodies.
The end of the Pullman, Ashmere.
extended four feet over the brink. while |
broken timbers and twisted rails hung |
still further over. The arroyo had |
been widened to over 100 feet at the |
point where the bridge had been. The |
water tore zigzag course across the |
prairie to a depth of 30 feet in sew
eral places. There was but little left |
OF the baggage cara few rods. truck |
or so, dimly seen in the muddy water. |
a half buried iron safe. The great To-
connective. the boiler free Of the trucks, |
the cab and tank gone, lies where II |
fell.
Without doubt the great majority |
were drowned like rats in trap when
the cars were plunged without mo-
ment's warning into the whirling Wa
ter IS feet deep. 100 feet wide and
with current strong enough to carry
thousands Of pounds Of weight nearly
a mile before subsiding.