River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1904-07-21

Chicago, ILL.,, July IA. - Nineteen
women and children were killed and 81
injured, 40 seriously, in collision be-
tween an excursion train loaded to the
platform with Sunday school picnickers
from. Doremus Congregational church,
Chicago, and freight train near Glen
wood, ILL.,, at $40 o'clock Wednesday
night The wreck was the result of a
misunderstanding Of orders. The ex-
cursiOn train was coming north on the
south-bound track of the Chicago &
Eastern Illinois railroad when at curve
half-mile south of Glenwood it crashed
into the rear end of a coal train. The
baggage car was telescOped and the first
coach completely demolished. Both cars
were filled with children and women.
The party of $50 picnickers was return
ing from Island park, Momence. For
the most part the passengers were happy
children and their mothers. Some were
singing and some were asleep When the
wreck came.
At the crash those in the rear cars
of the 11-coach train rushed for the doors
or jumped through the windows, many
being injured.
Crash without Warning.
In front, the first two cars, crushed
like egg shells, were crowded with dead
and injured.
The baggage car had been filled with
romping children. The roof of the first
passenger was rammed clear through it,
pushing the. cruelty crushed mass Of
humanity through the breaks in the
walls. The first passenger car was torn
to splinters.
Relief Hurried to Scene.
Word was sent to Chicago Heights and
Glenwood and relief parties reached the
spot Is minutes later. The scene was a
most fearful thing. Struggling masses
of bodies could be seen through the open
ings in the cars. The dead and injured
were packed in together. The dead were
terribly, horribly mangled, heads and
limbs having been served, and in the
midst were the manned and injured liv-
ing. 1t was Is minutes before the first
body was taken out. 1t was that of a
small boy, nearly every bone being
broken, and was taken from the brake
rods on the baggage car. The corpse OF
little girl, as yet unidentified, was taken
from near the baggage car door. There
was no screaming nor Tailing. The pic
nickers came to the aid Of the workers
who had arrived in large numbers. Eight
physicians were soon on the scene.
Then came the grewsome task of bring
ing the poor crushed children and babies
out of the wreckage. Detached heads,
arms, legs were passed out by the men
inside. They were laid under the
cushion cloths in line by the wire fence
and a few inches away the wounded
were laid out. Physicians hurriedly
dressed wounds and administered slim
ulants Field surgery was practiced.
Women and children were drafted into
the work of relief. Car doors were torn
off and used as stretchers and everything
possible that could be done was accom-
plished.
Out along the wire fences were laid
"a heads, and somewhere under the
rough covering were the arms, legs and
trunks. The sight was sickening. 1t
seemed a grateful fact that families had
not been separated. The lack of water
caused much delay and dozen mangled
little ones breathed their last under the
scrub oaks on the seat cushions. Fires
were built to heat water. The farmers
brought water in milk cans. The field
hospital was operating among the piles
of dead until eight o'clock, when the last
bodies which could be found were taken
out and placed on a special train for
Chicago
Families Joined in Death.
No mothers were seeking children nor
children mothers. Both mothers and
children who had been in the Inflated
cars had been killed. An hour after the
wreck the side of the track was covered
with wounded and dying for distance
of a quarter of a mile. The mutilation
caused by the breaking wood and smash
ing iron was horrible
Where the two wrecked cars stood was
a mass of human, mangled flesh and
bones. Those in charge of the picnic are
loud in denouncing the railway COM
pany.
1t was a slaughter of innocents. The
little children, who had been on the only
outing provided for them for the sum-
mer, an excursion heavily patronized by
the poorer people because of the cheap
rates. were in the dangerous place. AS
the second car telescoped the baggage
car the hundred or more occupants of
both coaches were caught in the mighty
crush.
Witness Tells of Crash.
A. H. Blakemore. who lives few rods
from the scene of the collision, was an
eyewitness.
81 saw the trains come together and
with George Gerron and George Stanford
rushed to Them he said. THE passen-
ger train came down the grade at fast
clip, probably 40 miles an hour, and