The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1904-01-15
SAM e OLD. STORY
People Plunged 70 Certain Death II
the Darkness Of Night.
lsgVENTEEN5 d cRUsHHD 10 DEATH
And Many Others seriously Injured.
I ma Most distressing Scenes
IS ENACTED Aftcr The Fatal
Crash Game.

- )
News comes from Topeka, Kansas,
OF a railroad accident on the Rock
Island, California and Mexican Rail
way in which seventeen persons were
S. killed outright and thirty-seven others
were more or less injured. The ac-
cident occurred near Topeka on Tues
day morning of last week. The acci-
y dent was caused by collision of a
passenger and a freight train.
1t is thought that carelessness OF
trainmen caused the wreck. Instruct
ed to meet Special freight train at
Willard, the engineer and conductor
of the ill-fated passenger noting that
q freight train stood on the sidetrack
at Willard rushed through, thinking
JilaJ Che cars. they had seen were the
ones which they had been instructed
to pass. Upon seeing at Willard a
freight train on the siding, Engineer
Benjamin threw open the throttle
and.under the impetus of full steam
the passenger train leaped into the
darkness and crashed along at a rate
which the passengers declare to have
been fully 65 miles an hour.
: 1aAA<o OC 1tth ttOtttohs
II. G. Parsons, q reporter of the
Topeka State Journal, who was on
the wrecked train, arrived in Topeka
at 8 o'clock Wednesday morning after
driving overland from tie scene of the
collision. Parsons escaped with slight
injuries while two persons on the seat
In front of him were killed. Parsons
tells the following story Of the wreck:
1t was in the third car of the pas
senger train, the first coach having
!; been preceded by smoker and bag
? = pnae Sear, that the greatest loss OF life
occurred. The smoker, which was oc-
ccabpied by only two or three men, was
overturned and pushed through the
car behind it, which was crowded
with passengers, some standing in the
aisle. The first warning Of the pas
4 seDgers in this car was when the sud
sideh setting of the airbrakes shut off
1.-the lights, leaving all in darkness. A
{, ,moment. later mass of splintered
!: wood and iron was crowded down up
$ on them. No one was thrown out of
Z their seat by the blow. Most of those
!. IN the forward end of the car were
!, killed instantly. Thirty in the rear
end of the coach, however, succeeded
In; escaping from that end of the car
which was still unobstructed. No
one ii. the front half of the car escap-
4 ed. They We're crushed down between
{ the seats by the ter. When rc,euG
Ess.;,o1g--eJ possible only tnreG living
s Yss'o.s.is Were taken out by the rescu-
8 efs, who were compelled to chop holes
IN the side and through the floor and
top OF the coach to reach them.
ONLY THREE ALIVE.
The three rescued from this por-
tion' We're a man, small girl and a
middle aged woman, who we've moan
Ing and begging to be taken out. One
man, hurt internally, was removed
through the rear door within five
minutes after the collision, but died
almost as soon as the rescuers could
lay him down. A woman died two
hours later while trying to tell a
physician her name A dozen men
had worked on the place where she
seemed to be before she was extricat-
ed;
Bonnie Martin, girl IL years of
age, was pinned down between the
Two cars, the heavy stove resting on
one foot. Her cries attracted the
rescuers, and men, many of them
bleeding from wounds about the face
and arms, worked heroically to get
her out. It took two hours Of steady
work to relieve her. When she was
taken out she addressed doctor who
was bending over her as papa
The physician did not have the
heart to tell her that she was an or
phan, her father and mother having
been killed. Mr.. Martin was killed
instantly and Mrs. Martin died ten
minutes after being taken out of the
wreck. The child was suffering with
a broken ankle, where the heavy
stove fell on her, and severe scalp
contusions. She was put to sleep by
q hypodermic injection to relieve the
plain.
Some of the bodies found in the
wreckage were so badly crushed as to
be unrecognizable. Through hole
chopped in one side of the car the
body of a gray haired heavy-set man
and woman with long yellow hair
were visible. Fires were built along
the track at short intervals and by
tfis hight OF these the rescuers, in
their eagerness to remove the victims,
chopped openings in the wrecked
coaches until exhausted, then hand
ed their axes to others.
CAR CHOPPED AWAY.
1.-THE entire sides of the car had
been chopped away when the work
was completed. Occasionally the
rescuers would desist upon an alarm
being raised by watchers who declared
that the chopping away of the coach
was letting the smoker down upon the
Victims. So terrific was the force Of
the collision that the smoker left the
trucks in it's backward rush, leaving
the trucks still upon the track. Not
a wheel in the entire passenger train
seemed to be off the track.
The freight train Jared differently.
The four cars Immediately behind the
engine were crushed into kindling.
Dead and dying cattle Uttered the
right of way, while many which had
escaped from the cars uninjured ran
about, adding to the confusion.
On the passenger train, Ia the
sleeper, was young physician who
walked with a crutch as the result OF
I, some SpiDal tr0tlnle TJe was thrown