The sun., 1905-09-12

announcer -uGpC car, puonoo tIo occohu coE
ahead Of It. II was exactly as though the
train had been o rather stih wand doubled
80 quickly that It broke when 1t should
have bent
THE YATED SECOND CAR.
The racket was fendish. The wheels Of
the second car jammed over into the third
rail. This. caused an explosion and a fash
Of electric flames which shot mp past the
windows OF the toppling car and dazzled
people blocks away. The men and women
who filed the train screamed helplessly.
Those In the second car, which was turning
over. were silent for two or three heart
beats; then, realizing their situation, they
shrieked horribly until their cries were
drowned by the wrenching and clangor Of
resounding steel and the rending Of wood
work and the clatter Of splintering glass.
Things happened faster than 1t is pos
sible to tell them. The second car, whose
passengers were doomed. nearly all OF
them, TO death or manning turned over
slowly and was thrust straight out above
the street. The car was twisted and bat
tered and rent by the strain and went all
to pieces in the air, so that men and women
came dropping down out Of it like seeds
from bursting pod. So sudden had tho
catastrophe been that some OF them cutched
newspapers in both hands as they plunged.
The roof of the car was undermost. 1t
split and broke in ten places, and whenever
it buckled and gaped people fell through
the holes Some cried aloud and some
were silent. Slowly the wrenched wreck
of car tipped over until one end of it hit
the Fifty-third street sidewalk Then it
ran into itself, crumpling Itself together
into mass of kndling wood, with score
Of people writhing and striking out through
the chaos. The electricity of the third
rail kept farihg up with explosive red
flares.
PANIC IN THE THIRD CAR.
The third car humping and hcaving,
swung around and seemed likely to follow
the second car to the sidewalk. But tho
forward end of it struck the fire escape OF
the house on the southeast corner and
lodged there. Some of the passengers
leaped from the windows and broke their
legs and heads below. Others fought like
wild animals to get out to the fire escape.
The gritting and the smashing died down
and walls and groans and sharp screams
Of agony rose again.
Persons in the street had been struck
down by the falling debris, When the
Inflated second car, in its first breaking
up in midar. had dropped part Of its
passengers to the street. some of them had
the strength and the coolness to scramble
out of the way. dragging others wi ith them.
But majority OF them lay where they
fell and the parts OF the great car, steel
trucks, steel bedded platforms and jagged
sections of the floor and sides. fell upon
1bov,o I'D or,iohad than as thaY Law.
SAFE FROM THE WRECKED CAR.
It is usual and proper for those who
want to report the news OF an accident to
10 among the survivors and ask for the
relation OF individual experiences. Some
what industrious search for such stories
Yesterday seemed to show that no one in
the second car had any chance to make
note OF what was going on Said Con-
ductor j. w. johnson:
II was on the front Of the second carl on
the platform. The car heaved up and
bumped and the next knew was on the
rear platform, holding on with both hands
for dear life and swinging out over the
street. don't know how got there. I
dropped into the street and wasn't hurt
A son Of johnson was passenger In tho
middle Of the car. He was sitting with
friend William Beattie. He says:
Il felt the jar and looked up to see where
my father was. The next thing I knew
Beattie and Uwere rolling around on the roof
Of the car, which was on the bottom. Then
the roof split and we dropped out into the
street. ! saw that the car was coming
down on top Of US and tried to pull Beattie
out Of the way. but he was struck by beam
and rather badly hurt. 1t was all 30 quick
that hadn't time to drop the newspaper
that Beattie and were reading"
HELPED OTHERS TO THE LAST.
Many were the displays Of courage
which seemed heroic to the witnesses of
them, but which appeared commonplace
at the moment to tho actors themselves.
Policeman Henry Aiken, veteran OF the
Broadway squad, met Edward Moran.
another policeman. on the corner just
before the trains left the track. They
had hardly time to exchange greetings
when the ripping and smashing began
above. Moran got from under. but
piece Of car platform caught Aiken and
Knocked him down.
He wandered about helplessly for
minute or two and then began helping
people who fell from above and who seemed
worse OF than he was himself. He got
to working harder and harder. He was
nearly blinded with blood. Moran and an
expressman found him tugging at the
body Of girl-she was dead-pinned under
. side Of tho fallen car They dragged
him away and lifted him into the express
mans wagon. Tho expressman took him
to Roosevelt Hospital, where II was found
that the old fellow had three RIBS broken,
that there had bean rupture Of the carti-
lagos Of his chest and that bis skull seemed
to be fractured.
The people who were caught In the de-
struction Of the second car were many Of
them torn to pieces. Baskets had grim
uses when the work Of tearing the wreckage
apart began.
CRAsHED INTO FLAT WINDOWS.
The third car. which Jumped outand lodged
against tho tenement on tho southeast
corner, made bridge through which people
clsmbered to safety from the elevated
structure. The Car knocked In the windows
Of Mrs. James q. Grove. She was about
her household work when the windows Of
her fat fell In and bloody faced men and