Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1904-09-28
BLAMED FOR THE WRECK.
Death List of Accident on Southern
Railway Now Numbers GA.
ENGINEER DIES AT POST
Locomotive Driver Deliberately Flies
Past Meeting Place and Death
Results.

Knoxville, Tenn, Sept. 26.-The death
list as result Of the wreck on the South
ern road near Newmarket on Saturday
has grown tonight to sixty-two and it
Will probably exceed seventy before
Tuesday, as many Of the injured are in a
serious condition and more deaths will
occur at the hospitals.
Yesterday there were six deaths, the,
last one occurring at o'clock last night,
when NJ. P. Cant Of Shelby, n. c., passed
away. Others who died at the hospital
were the two colored fireman, two little
girls, and Nep Miller, colored, of johnson
/ City.
To the list of dead there were also
added an unknown infant, found at the
scene Of the wreck and two other uniden-
titled bodies.
The engineer Of the westbound train,
so investigation shows, was directly re-
sponsible for the disaster. He deliber-,
ately disobeyed orders. Why, will never
| be known, for he was crushed to death
beneath his engine and his fireman suf-,
fered a like fate.
Flies Past Meeting Point.
Hodges, a little station, was to be the
meeting point of the two trains. The
westbound received orders to take the,
sidetrack at the depot and await the
eastbound train. The engineer received
his orders and placed the slip Of yellow
paper in a little frame hanging in the
cab, where it would be constantly before
! him.
There are but two possible explana-
tons Of his failure to follow orders-he
may have gone to sleep or the still re-
mote chance of him being suddenly
stricken blind. But there is little chance
of either theory being aught else but a
surmise. There can be no excuse of mis-
! leading q
IN broad daylight.
Rushes On to Destruction
The train, driven by the man whose
! criminal carelessness cost him his life,
rushed through Hodges at 1915, going
| forty miles an hour. The telegraph oper
| ator knew that it should have stopped.
lie rushed from the depot when he saw
no evidence of slackening speed and fran
tically signaled. No one saw or paid any
attention to him. He realized the abso-
lutte certainty of the impending calamity,
and calling the train dispatcher at Knox
vile notified him of the wreck which he
knew must happen, as the east-bound
train, ordered to pass the West-bOund at
Hodges, was due in two minutes
The news reached Knoxville almost 81
multaneously with tile crash of the trains,
and the frantic railroad officials began
ordering out wrecking apparatus and spe-
clal trains bearing doctors, nurses, cots
Meet on a Sharp Curve.
The crash came on a sharp curve, be-
tween high banks. The westbound train
was heavy one, it carrying the sleepers
from the east for Knoxville. Chattanooga,
and other southern cities. The eastbound
train was lighter, consisting Of day
coaches and chair cars. 1t was going
thirty miles an hour, the other forty
The heavy train crashed into the light
fOTon q Uia 11t ccil
hurled from catapult. And by the
irony of fate, the engineer and the fire
man of the train at fault were the only
ones on that train to lose their lives, while
ffty-two travellers were killed on the train
that had the right Of way.
Srnashup Is Complete.
Expert railroad men who have seen
scores Of wrecks unite in saying that
never have they seen such an ineXpress-
IDLY thorough smash-up. The two en-
glnes and their tenders were simply q
mass Of scrap iron, from which vomiteG
fire, smoke and steam. The big machines
were driven into one another, the COW
catcher of the heavy westbound finding
final Judgment in the cab OF the other
This engine was turned almost on its
back, the drive wheels pointing almost
directly to the sky.
TIE light coaches Of the local train
were litereally knocked into splinters.
Roofs were crushed like crumpled en-
velope, two cars had both sides torn out,
floors were driven up and forced through
the ceilings, catching and crushing men,
women and children as if in a wise.
When the first impact came the pas
sengers on the eastbound train were
hurled from their seats and thrown to-
ward the front end of the cars. Then,
in IN instant, before they could regain
their feet, the cars commenced literally
to telescope and close up as q hat rack is
compressed. As the jaws Of wood and
iron came together they killed and
manned the helpless, huddled masses of
humanity.
Bodies Crushed to Pulp.
I Dozens of bodies were simply, crushed
out of all semblance to human form,
by the hundred. When the doctors got
to work it seemed as if hardly victim
had escaped without at least one frac-
ture, and scores had half dozen
Then the mingled mass of splintered
timber, twisted iron and trapped hui
mainly was hurled almost on top of the
scrap heap which a moment before had
been two giant locomotives.
The baggage car of the west bound
train was derailed, but the Pulmans and
other coaches behind it kept the track.
From them roured trainmen and pas
sangers to render what aid was possible.
The tool eases in the cars We're broken
open. and men. nerved to mighty deeds
by the shrieks and groans that came.
from the pile Of wreckage began the
work Of rescue.
It was 4 long, gruesom etask. In one
car they found q woman pinioned by a
niece Of split timber which had gone
completely through her body. A little
child. Quivering in deaths agony, lay
beneath the woman. The child died ten
minutes later. Within a few feet of the
little one lay woman's head, while the
decapitated body was several feet away.
Child Calls for Dead Parents.
Another little girl, Lucille Conner of
Knoxville, whose body was iearfully
mangled. was pitifully calling for her
mother. but her mother and father lay
dead ten feet away.
One woman, terribly manglcd, was
praying earnestly to be spared for her
children, but death relieved her suffer-
ings in Il few minutes.
The uninjured and those only slightly
hurt Joined in the work of relief. Many
of them We're searching for friends and
relatives, and their weeping and wailing
Il