Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1904-08-11
ONE>HUNDRED LIVES LOST
Heavy Train Plunges Through a Bridge
Into Greek.
The DISASTER NEAR PUEBLO, COL.
Two Cars Filled With Passengers Follow
Locomotive Into q Torrent Swollen by
Cioudburst Which Had Weakened rounda'
tIous Of the Bridge Only -Four Passengers
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 Steelcs Hollow and As Dry
Creek, near Eden, about 8 o'clock r.
M. 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 ill-fated cars escapeo
death.
How many pershcd probably never
will be definitely ascertaned, 1or the
treacherous sands are drifting over tile
bodies. Searching for the dead was
begun at midnight on an extensive
scale and still is in progress. Al
corpses found were brought to Pueb'
10 and placed in four morgues mere
AT 8 o'clock 70 bodies had been re-
covered, and of these so had been
identified. During the day bodies were
recovered all the way along Fountain
River from the scene of the wreck to
this city.
Att o'clock two bodies were taken
from the stream at First street, fueo-
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 mutlated, and
all are in such condition as to be rec
ognizable. Many identfications 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 ot 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 squalIy clouds and heavy rams
TO the north, Engineer Charles Hind
man was running cautiously about IS
miles an hour as he approached the
Arroyo, which was spanned by
bridge o6 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 Mayheld, with
torch that the engineer and fireman
had burning to ascertain the condition
Of the track, was i'll the gangWay.
When Engineer Hindman felt the
tremor in the great machine and
caught glmmer 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 Mayfcld 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 1t
had been 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 ana
chair car followed the locomotive INTO
the stream and were swept away All
the occupants of these cars, except
three men, perished, and had not the
roof of the chair car burst asunder
none would have escaped. The hre-
man. as the locomotive went over,
was thrown out, and managing to
grasp a piece of wreckage from the
bridge, hoatcd with that to curve
made by the caving bank and crept
out of the water. He ran toward Eden
meeting on the way operator r. 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 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
III SnOTIly dltCI hiipiieht WIN -''
KILN, of Pueblo: H. S. Gilbert, Tony
Fisher and Fireman Mayfeld. 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 felt
A quarter of a mile to the east.
where this gorge of death dcbouched
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 vcstiges Of the
coaches, the engine and tender stuck
I'D 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.