Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1906-03-20
Wreck DEAIH:RuLL !.
TOTALS two Score
ESTIMATES PLACE LOSS OF LIFE
IN ADOBE, COL, DISASTER
AT THIRTY-SIX.
OPERATOR SLEEPS AS
TRAIN SPEEDS TO DOOM
Another Report Has 1t That Dispatch
er Was Not at Post-Catastroph
Believed to Be Most Horrible in
History of Railroading.

Pueblo, Col, March 19.-While the
exact number of lives lost in the
Adobe wreck near Florence on the
Denver & Rio Grande railroad will
never be known, it undoubtedly will
take rank among the great disasters
in the history of railroading. In other
wrecks there has been greater loss of
life, but none has been productive of
greater horrors. Conservative esti-
mates on the loss of life place the
number of dead at Sc. Seventeen
charred, mangled and utterly unrec-
ognizable bodies lie in the Pueblo
morgue. Several other persons are
known to be dead and possibly a score
of bodies were burned to ashes.
Only One Body Recovered.
There was not single entire body
recovered from the wreckage with the
! exception of the enginemen, whom,
although horribly mangled, had not
been reached by the fierce flames that
swept through the wrecked cars. Bits
of charred flesh and piles of bones
were all that indicated that a holo-
caust had occurred, but trained eyes
picked out the pelvic bones from the
charred masses, and from these it was
seen that so far as the search had
ings had persisted. A coroner's jury
will meet at Canon City on Monday
to fix the responsibility for the COLI
sion.
Left at Critical Time.
1t has developed that S. F. Lively,
who was the regular day operator at
Swallows, had besides performing his
own duties worked on the night Of
the wreck for William Vandeusen, the
night operator. Vandeusen is said to
have absented himself from the sta
ton on that night without getting the
J approval of his superiors. Both men
have been discharged by the railway
officials.
Operator Asleep at Post
Denver, Col, March 19.-At the Of
nce Of the general manager Of the
Denver & Rio Grande railroad the an
nouncement was officially made that
E. L. Lively, night operator at Swal-
lows, was wholly responsible for the
collision at Adobe. He was asleep at
his post, 1t is said, when train No. 8,
to which he was to have delivered an
order, went by, and later he reported
to the train dispatcher at Pueblo that
; No. had not passed Swallows. Two
operators are employed at Swallows
Lively's regular shift was from seven
: o'clock in the evening until seven
o'clock in the morning, when he was
regularly relieved by the day operator
Officials Of the Rio Grande deny that
Lively had been required to work over.
time, and say if he had done so the
action was voluntary on his part.
The Collision.
Both trains were running at the
usual speed, the deep snow and high
wind making it necessary to exercise
exceptional care. Suddenly both
headlights flashed out from the dark.
ness, and 1t was realized for the first
) time that something was wrong. Ac.
cording to the story of Fireman j. H.
Smith, Of the west-bound train, En-.
gineer Coslett opened the emergency
brake and the train was checked for
an instant, but the slippery rails and
the momentum of the heavy train car.
ried 1t on. From the stories told by
, several Of the trainmen who survived
| and who were In the forward part OF
the train, the impact was scarcely no
ticeable, but the crushing, grinding
noise that followed warned them thai
: something had been struck The
helper engine on No. evidently acted
: as a sort of cushion, minimizing the
force and weight of the heavy noun
tain engines that haul the trains
where the grade does not require as
sistance. This helper was crushed
together like so much paper, and the
monster machines ran through, lock.
Ing themselves together as If In a
death struggle.
Passengers Roasted Alive.
Hardly had the train men and pas
sengers reached realization that al
was not right when the other horror
sheet OF fire, ran through the cars OF
both sides OF the engines, and in {
1 twtsxlins the cracking sound d