The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-09-20
LIST is GIVEN OUT
Those Killed and Injured in
Rock Island Wreck.
Four Dead Are Accounted for
Cp to Date.
STILL UNDER WATER.
Though River Has Fallen Sub
merged Car Can't Be Reached.
More Stories Told of Hair
breadth Escapes.
STILL UNDER WATER.

land smoking car is still six or seven
feet under the surface AM an attempt
to explore it viii not be made until some
time today. It is not known positively
how many persons were in the smoker
when 1t fell. Conductor Thomas says
there were at least nine and he believes
s, 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 persons known to have
been riding in the front end of the
smoker separated from the rear door by
a partition is thought to have been an
impossibility No bodies have been re-
covered.
Herman E. Sells. aged three years,
son of Mrs. Kate Sells of Payne, Ohio,
died today from acute pneumonia as
result of inhaling muddy water.
The following are missing and proba-
bly, drowned:
Mr.. Camel. mail clerk. Caldwell. Kan.
Il IittIeheId. Pittsburg, Pa. bill
poster Fourpaugh h-Sells circus
w L. Douglas, negro porter.
Herman E. sells.
The Injured.
John Sullivan, aged %. Chicago; hand
c. A smith. aged %, New York city:
F. 5. BAN. aged 25, FL Reno; knee and
Geo. L. Wright. aged IS. Denver; cuts.
bruises and exposure; hoated seven
miles down stream.
A. A. Baldwin. aged 80, postal clerk.
Fort Worth; cut on head and bruises
Frank Cullen, aged %. cuts and
bruises; foated several miles from
scene OF wreck.
i. H. O'Brien. aged 80, Oklahoma
City; bruised and cuts.
Mrs Kate Sells, aged %, Payne, o.;
shock. exposure and internal injuries
Jack Robinson, aged ST, colored;
slight cuts
H. H. BaImer, aged 30, teacher in
Haskell institute. Lawrence. Kan;
bruised all over and carried Il miles
~down stream.
s D. Overton. postal clerk, bruises;
carried two miles.
Mrs o. f. Hutcher, Dallas. Tex;
back injured. nervous shock
O. W. Brown, aged So, Comanche,
Okla. hand cut
David ]. Lang. aged Al. HiHsboro.
Okla; back injured, head and arm
cut.
Mrs j. j.. Robinson. aged 90. Enid.
Okla; cuts and strangulation; may
die
s W. Bryan, fireman aged 2S;
shoulder dislocated.
One man whose name can not 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 Kingfsher. He had
been nine hours in the water cHnging
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. Tt is a bottle containing
2. small slip of paper on which IS
written these words
THE one that finds this bottle write
to Cleeo, Okla to Eldon Camp. I
love YOU"
The bottle was found at the AIyea
farm several miles below the fatal
bridge in a pile of wreckage and
driftwood. It is believed to be the
dying message of someone imprisoned
in the submerged smoker.
Guthrie. Okla, Sept 2o.-A special
TO the State Capital from kingfsher
says that one of the crew of the wreck
ed Rock Island passenger train is au-
1hority for the statement that a woman
and child entered the toilet room Of
the smoking car just as that coach
plunged into the river. They were un-
. doubtedly lost.
W NJ Balmer, who was rescued
floating fourteen miles down the Cim-
arron, tells the following graphic
story;
"There were fifteen or sixteen of US
in that smoking car. L was just in the
act of leaving the smoker for tn e coach
behind and had reached the door when
we went down did not realize for a
few seconds what had happened.
found myself scrambling over the
seats in the smoker, where had been
thrown when the car tipped up on end,
going into the water in that position.
In some way. I don't think I will ever
be able to tell how I extricated myself
from the wreckage and the next thing
] was struggling in the water. 1t was
icy cold.
Il felt myself going down and down.
then presently I came to the surface
hanging to a piece of the demoHsh ed
coach. BY this time / was we'll out in
the river and the strong current was
bearing me swiftly down stream.
saw people around me struggling but
Of course could offer no assistance. It
being as much as I could do to keep
my head above water. In a few min
utes I was far down the river and
thought that death was near. for with
the undercurrent so strong. I was pull
ed under continually, each time becon-
ing more weak I chung to my piece
of Wreckage with a death grip and
struggled with all my might to keep
myself from sinking
mot until I had hoated Il miles dowr
the river could I get near enough tc
the shore tu grab anything to hang to
The current would swing me around
causing the waves to break over my
face and each time I would go under
Six times remember saying Good
bye. thinking ] should never see the
sun again but coming up a new force