The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1904-08-12
ONE HUNDRED LIVES LOST
Heavy Train PIunges through a Bridge
lrt0 Greek.
THE DISASTER NEAR PUEBLO, COL.
Two csrs Filled With Passengers Follow
Locomotive Into a Torrent Swollen by a
Cloudburst Which Had Weakened FcEnda'
tons Of the Bridge-OnIy Four Passengers
We're Saved.

IONS OF the br1oge-Uniy Four fheeeExeis
We're Saved.
Pueblo, Col, (SpeciaD.-Two car
loads of human freight plunged into
the raging torrent that destroyed the
trestle over the usually dry Arroyo,
known as Steeles Hollow and as Dry
| Creek, near Eden, about 8 o'clock T.
Nj. Two sleeping cars and the dining
car stopped at the brink Of the chasn,
which was filled with a boiling cur
rent that quickly engulfed probably
! 100 lives. Only three of the occu-
pants of the Inflated cars escaped
DEATH
How many persisted probably never
will be definitely ascertained, tor the
treacherous sands are drifting over the
bodies. Searching for the dead was
| begun at midnight on an extensive
scale and still is in progress. All
corpses found were brought to Pueb-
10 and placed in four morgues here.
At o'clock 76 bodies had been re-
covered, and of these 50 had been
identified During the day bodies were
recovered all the way along Fountain
River from the scene Of the wreck to
! this city.
At O'Clock two bodies were taken
from the stream at First street, Pueb-
10, more than eight miles, from the
point where the disaster occurred, and
| it is probable that some may even be
recovered further down stream. None
of the bodies is badly mutilated, and
all are in such condition as to be rec
| ognizable. Many identihcations have
been made by articles found on the
bodies, no persons who viewed them
recognizing the features.
Bridge Gives Way.
So quitely had the catastrophe been
enacted that the occupants OF the
three cars remaining on the track did
not realize that an accident had oc-
Cured until they alighted from the
train. Then they were utterly pow
erless to render 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 approached the
| Arroyo, which was. spanned by a
bridge Of feet in length. The condi-
ton of the bridge was not known
until the locomotive, one of the mon
ster passenger type, had nearly cross
ed. Fireman Frank Mayfeld, with a
torch that the engineer and fireman
had burning to ascertain the condition
of the track, was in the gangway.
When Engineer Hindman felt the
| 20, 10 v,,ach,ro and
caught a glimmer on the water he
shouted his last words:
"Put out that TORCH" evidently think
ing that in the accident he felt GER
tain was coming the flames would
serve to spread fire.
But before Mayfeld 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 though it
had been a stack of kindling wood,
and the locomotive dropped, with the
kissing steam, 80 feet 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, except
three men, persisted, and had not the
roof of the chair car burst asunder
none would have escaped. The fire.
man, as the locomotive went over,
was thrown out, and managing to
grasp a piece of wreckage from the
bridge, hoated with that to curve
made by the. caving fank and crept
out of the water. He ran toward Eden
meeting on the way operator F. M.
Jones and his wife, who already had
started up the track.
Notify Pueblo" came the voice of
the running man; "the trains gone
down and everybody is killed"
Even as he spoke, relates the oper-
ator, there were cries coming from
the distance. 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.
A Dismal Scene.
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 ]. M.
KILN, of Pueblo; H. S. Gilbert, Tony
Fisher and Fireman Mayheld. These
were four men in the midst of the
wreck who escaped.
When dawn came the wonder grew
that four had been permitted to
emerge from the raging torrent with
breath still in their bodies.
The great locomotive, the boiler
| free of the trucks, the cab and tank
gone, lies where it fell.
A quarter of mile to the east,
where this gorge of death debouched
into the fountain, lay the chair car,
windows gone, three-fourths filled
with mud and sand. A hundred feet
farther on was the smoker. bot
tom up against sand bar. A humid
red and fifty feet farther on in the bed
of the fountain was the coal tender
of the engine, and from that point on
for four or FIVE miles vestiges of the
coaches, the engine and tender stuck
up from the bed of the stream or lay
along the shore or on the islands.
Red plush seats of the smoker were
'strewn all along the stream.