The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-08-12

Pueblo, Colo, August S.-The wreck
of the worlds fair flyer on the Denver
and Rio Grande railroad near Eden,
seven miles north of Pueblo, last even
ing, proves to have been one OF the
greatest railroad disasters of the his
tory of the country. Two crowded
passenger cars, and a baggage car,
were engulfed in the torrent that tore
out a trestle spanning Dry Creek, and
so far as known tonight only three oc-
cupants of the cars escaped death.
Fortunately two sleeping cars and a
diner completing the train, remained
on the track at the edge of the abyss
and none of their occupants was killed
or injured. How many persisted prob
ably never will be definitely ascertain
ed. for the treacherous sands are drift
ing over the bodies.
Searching for the dead was begun
about midnight on an extensive scale
and still is in progress tonight. All
corpes were brought to Pueblo and
placed in four morgues.
At 8 o'clock this evening, seventy
six bodies had been recovered and of
these fifty had been identified. Dur
ing the day bodies were recovered all
the way along Fountain river from the
scene of the wreck to this city. At 1
O'Clock this afternoon two bodies were
taken from the stream at First street,
Pueblo, more than eight miles from the
point where the disaster occurred and
K is probable that some may be recov-
cred even further down stream.
Pueblo, Colo, August S.-Two car
loads of human freight plunged into the
gin torrent that destroyed the tres
tie over the usually dry Arroyo, known
as Steele's Holly, about 8 o'clock last
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 did
the catastrophe be enacted that the oc-
cupal2fS OF the three cars remaining on
the track did not realize that an ac-
cident had occurred until they alighted
from the train.
The condition of the bridge was not
known until the locomotive, one of the
monster passenger type, had nearly
crossed. Fireman Frank Mayfield, with
a torch that the engineer and fireman
had burning to ascertain the condition
of the track was in the gang way.
When Engineer Heindman felt the ire
NOR in the great machine and caught
a glimmer on the water he shouted
his last worlds: Put out that torch"
evidently thinking that in the accident
he felt certain was coming, the flames
would serve to spread fire.
But before Mayfield could obey. while
the words were still on the lips of the
doomed man, and his hand stroking the
m~echanicism controlling the air, the
bridge gave way as though it had been
a stack Of kindling wood. and the To-
connective dropped with the Kissing Of
steam thirty 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 n were swept away. All
the occupants of these cars, except
three men,, persisted and had not the
roof OF the chair a bursted asunder
none would have escaped. The fireman,
as the locomotive went over, was
thrown out and managing to grasp a
piece of Wreckage from the bridge,
fiOated with that to a curve made by
the caving bank and crept out of the
water. He ran toward Eden, meeting
on the way Operator f. NJ. Pones and
MS wife who ALREADY had started up
the track. Notify Pueblo came the
voice of the running man. The train
has gone down and everybody is kill
ed"
Even as he spoke to the operator
there were cries coming from distance.
Relief trains with physicians, wrecks
and pile driving outfits and scores OF
wOrkmen were hurried from the city.
The wrecking crew came in shortly at
ter midnight.
The end of the Pullmars lear Wyuta
extended four feet over fidge, while
broke timbers and twisted rails hung
still further over. The Arroyo had been
widened to more han a hundred feet
at the point where the bridge had been
The water tore a large course through
the prairie to a depth of thirty feet
feet in several places. There was lit
tie left of the baggage car, a few rods
a truck or so, dimly seen in h muddy
water, and a half buried iron safe,
The great locomotive, the boiler free
OF the trucks, the cab and tank gone
lies where it fell.
A quarter of a mile to the east, lay
the chair car, windows gone, three
fourths filled with mud and sand. A
hundred feet farther IN vas the smok-
er, bottom up against a sand ].