Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-09-19
But Two Known to Have
Been Killed at Do
yer, Okla,
ON ROCK ISLAND ROAD
A Number Still Misslng---Some
Float Miles on Drift
wood.

Dover. Okla, Sept. 19.-At daylight
this morning no bodies of the victims of
yesterdays Rock Island train wreck
were recovered, but it was believed
only two persons were drowned, Hank
Littlefield, circus man. and a negro
porter.
The injured are being cared for at
Kingfisher. The passengers are nearly
all residents of Oklahoma. The col
lapse of the bridge was due to high
water in the Cimarron river. The river
is falling as rapidly as it rose.
Searched All Night.
Searchers with torches worked all
night to recover any possible victims
that still might be in the submerged
cars. Early today search was renew
ed here. while for a distance of 20
miles down stream parties are on the
lookout for victims. 1t is known sew
eral of those who escaped from the |
wreckage drifted down the swift cur |
rent, some having been seen as far as
10 miles distant from Dover.
Buries It's Dead.
The Cimarron is a treacherOus |
stream. A common saying among
frontiersmen of Oklahoma is that the
"Cimarron always buried its dead"
and for this reason it is believed the
exact number of dead will not be
known for several days.
John l.. Escaped Again.
Oklahoma. Sept 19.-The report
l. Il i'll
the Rock Island wreck at Dover was
erroneous. Sullivan was on the train,
but left it at Chickasha, and arrived
here this morning.
Fifty in Water.
Guthrie, Okla, Sept 19--Of more
than so passengers hurled into the Cim-
arron river when the high bridge near
Dover collapsed under a Rock Island
train yesterday, two are known
to have been drowned, and of
those saved some were fished from
the river from five to twenty
miles below the bridge. One man who
was on the train was reported last
night at a point If miles below the!
wreck. still sailing down the river on
a mass of driftwOod.
Making Up Time.
The train was running at high speed
to make up time when it approached
the bridge at $3.50 in the morning. The
engine was only few miles from the
bridge when the engineer saw that it
had been bent and weakened by mass
es of driftwood driven against it by a
swollen stream. He had just time to
throw on the air and whistle for emer-
gency brakes and jump before the en-
gine leaped on to the bridge and in an
other instant plunged into the river
and disappeared
Heavy PuIImans stop ON Brink.
The jar of the brakes broke the train
just ahead of two heavily laden Pull
mans These stopped on the edge OF
a gap through which had plunged after
the engine the baggage and mail cars,
the smoker and a day coach. Had the
PuIlmans plunged in on top OF the 9th
er cars few on the train would have es-
capped alive.
The CimarrOn, which is deep and
fanked by quicksands at this point,
was running like mill race. The
light day coach, the last of the cars to
go through the bridge, was whirled
ike d COTh dDOuJ qudItci VI Il
down stream and thrown up against a
sandbank. Its occupants, drenched and
terrified, clambered out through the
windows and fioundered ashore.
settled In sand.
The car quickly settled in the yield
ing sand and it is feared some of its '
occupants were buried with it. In the
smoking car when it went into the {
river were about thirty passengers.
The car was flung clear of the I
wreckage and struck the river on {
its side. Whirled about by the stream,
it slowly righted, and swept down the i
river submerged to within a few feet
of the top.
Smoker Swept On to Sandbar.
sandbar in the middle of the
stream. several hundred yards down,
stopped its progress. Those on the
shore watched while four men from the {
windows pulled themselves from the
top of the smoker and called for help.
1t was impossible for them to reach !
shore, or for those on shore to reach ]
them. While they called a mass of I