The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-09-20
SMOKING CAR
UNDER WATER
Number of Lives Lost in Rock
Island Disaster Not Fully
Determined.
STORIES ARE CONFLICTING
THRILLING EXPERIENCE OF w
M. BALMER.

Kfngfisher, Okla, Sept. 19.-The CHM
AKRON river has fallen eight feet from
the stage at which it weakened the
Rock Island bridge yesterday, when
part of train No. IL went into the riv-
er, but the smoking car is still six or
seven feet under the surface, and an
attempt to explore it will not be made
until tomorrow. 1t is not known posi-
lively how many persons were in the
smoker when 1t fell. Conductor Thorn
as says there were at least nine, and he
believes that three escaped.
B. p. Nicholson, who escaped from
the smoker, says there were at least
ten persons in the car. and that persons
with whom he had talked are missing
Mr.. Nicholson escaped from the rear
door Of the smoker. The car filed with
water as he clambered to the upturned
end and he broke a vestibule glass
door TO make an exit. Escape of per-
sons known to have been riding i'm the
front of the smoker, separated from the
rear door by the partition, is thought
to have been an impossibility. No
bodies have been recovered.
Herman E. Sells, aged years. son of
Mrs. Kate Sells of Payne, o., died to-
day from acute pneumonia as result
Probably Drowned.
The following are missing and prob
ably drowned:
Mr.. Camel, mail clerk. Caldwell, Kan
H. Littlefield of Pittsburg, Pa, bill
poster FOrepaugh-Se circus.
w. L. Douglas, negro porter.
Injured.
John Sullivan, aged %, Chicago; hand
cut.
c. A. Smith. aged %, New York City;
slight cuts.
F. S. Ball. aged %, Elreno; knee and
leg cut.
George L. Wright, aged 6S, Denver:
cuts, bruises and exposure; foated
seven miles down stream.
A. A. Baldwin, aged 80, mail clerk.
Fort Worth; cut on head and bruises.
Frank Cullen, aged %; cut and
bruises, f1oated several miles from
scene of wreck.
L. H. O'Brien, aged 80, Oklahoma
City; bruises and cuts.
Mrs. Kate Sells, aged 90 Payne, O.:
shock. exposure and internal injuries.
Jack Robinson, aged 81, colored;
slight cuts.
H. II. Balmer, aged 80, teacher i'm
Haskell institute, Lawrence, Kan:
bruises all over and carried fourteen
miles down stream.
S. d. Overton, postal clerk: bruises.
carried two miles.
Mrs. o. r. Hutscher Dallas. Tex:
back injured, nervous shock.
o. w. Brown, aged 81, Comanche.
Okla: hand cut
David j. Lang, aged A, Hillsboro.
Okla; back injured head and arm cut.
Mrs. ]. L. Robinson. aged 80. Enid.
Okla; cuts and strangulation. may die.
S. w. Bryan, fireman, aged Is; Shout
der dislOcated.
Nine Hours in River.
One man, whose named cannot be
learned, was taken out of the river to-
day at a point nine miles below the
Dover bridge. He was nearly dead
when brought to Kingfisher He had
been nine hours in the water clinging
to floating debris.
Claud Alyea, a farmer living ten
miles northeast of here, found today
what appeared to be a pathetic relic
of the wreck. 1t is q bottle contain
ing small slip of paper on which are
written these words:
1.-THE one that finds this bottle write
to Cleo, Okla, to Eldon camp. 1 lbve
you"
The bottle was found at the Alyea
farm several miles below the fatal
bridge, in a pile of wreckage and drift
wood 1t is believed to be the diving
message of some one imprisoned in the
submerged smoker.