The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-08-09
ONE HUNDRED DROWN
This is the Number Estimated, Over
Three Score Bodies Already Having
Been Recoyered---The Condition of
Bridge Was Unknown Until the
Monster Passenger Engine Was
"Clanking" Along the Rails Over
the Swollen and laundering Water.
(By the Associated Press }


Pueblo, Colo. Aug. S.-Two car
loads of human freight plunged into
the raging torrent that destroyed the
trestle over the usually dry arroyo,
known as Steele's Hollow, near Eden,
about o'clock this evening. Two
sleeping cars and the dining car stopped
at the brink of the hungry chasm filled
with a boiling, seething current that
quickly snuffed out probably 100 lives.
So quietly had the catastrophe been
enacted that the occupants of the two
cars remaining on the track did not
realize than an accident had occurred
until they had alighted from the train.
Then they were utterly powerless to
render assistance to the victims who
had disappeared in the rushing waters.
ON the lookout of danger. warned
by the squally clouds and heavy rains
to the north. Engineer Charles hind
man was running cautiously about fif-
teen miles an hour as he approached
the arroyo which was spanned by a
bridge 80 feet in length. The condi-
ton of the bridge was not known un-
I'll the locomotive, one OF the monster
passenger type, had nearly crossed.
Fireman Frank Mayfield, With n torch
that the engineer and the fireman had
burning to ascertain the condition of
the track was in the gangway. When
Engineer Hndman felt the tremor in
the great machine and caught a glim-
Iner on the water, he shouted his last
words:
Put out that torch" evidently
thinking that in the accident he felt
certain was coming, the fiameS would
serve to spread the fire.
The Bridge Sinks.
But before Mayfield could obey,
while the words were still on the lips
If the doomed man, and his hands
seeking the mechanism controilns tne
air the bridge gave way as though II
had been a stack of kindling wood
end the LOCOMOTIVES dropped with the
kissing of steam thirty feet to the bot
tom of the arroyo, crossWise 10 me
track.
The baggage car. smoking car and
chair car followed the locomotive INTO
the stream and wefc sweps away. Aii
the occupants of these cars eXcepl
lEree men perished, and had not the
roof OF the IhaR cas- anrSs A>unuei
none would have escaped. The hfe-
man as the locomotive went over, was
thrown out, managing TO grasp q
piece of wreckage from the brldge,
foated with that to a curve made by
Tic CdNliS Dcillh anu NiSPN oNN - -
Mater. He ran toward Eden. meeting
an tho way operator F. NJ. 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 opera
tor there were cries coming from the
distance. The two men ran to where
the bridge had been, to search, but III
vain. for victims of the disaster. When
they reached the spot all cries Tor help
had ceased.
Relief trains with physicians, wreck
and pile driving outfits ana scores OF
workmen were hurried from the city.
'rhc first train from the wreck cam
i'm shortly after midnight with j.: M.
KILN. of Pueblo; II. ). Glibert. Iony
Fishes and Fireman Mayfield. Ihese
were four men in the midst OF the
wreck who escaped.
Gorge of Death.
When dawn came the wonder grew
that four had been permitted TO
emerge from the raging torrent with
breath still in their bodies.
The end of the Pullman car Wyuta
extended four feet over the brink,
while broken timbers and twisted rails
hung still further over. The arroyo
had been widened to more than "a
hundred feet at the point Where the
bridge had been. The water tore a
zig-zag course across the prairie to
a depth of thirty feet in several places.
There was little left OF the baggage
car. a few rods Il truck or so. dlnly
seen in the muddy water. ana nan
buried iron safe. The great locomo-
tive. the boiler free of the trucks. the
cab and tank gone. lies where II fell
a quarter of a mile to the east,
where this gorge of death debouched
into the fountain. lay the chalr car,
windows gone, three fourths filled
with mud and sand. A hundred feet
farther on was the smoker. bottom up
against sand bar A hundred and
fifty feet farther on in the bed of the
fountain was the coal tender of the
engine ana from that noint on four
or five miles. vestiges of the coaches
engine and tender stuck up from the
bed of the stream or Law along the
shore or on the islands. Pei nlnsb
seats of the smoker were stra,,i, all
along the stream. Brass ra;ls from
the coaches were found in the sand a