Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-11-30


 sf the Impact that the forward train was. sent at least 15O feet ahead. the locomotive going over and upon the body of MT. Spencer. Until after the debris burned Itself out and the en- zine cooled off the bodies could not be removed.
 The impact drove the combination car forward, and the express car lifted up, together with It's trucks, and crush ed the car forty feet, leaving the re- mainder of the car strewn with tons of baggage and colored passengers, who were pushed back like rats as the express car crushed the combination car. The combination car did not leave the rails, and in clearing the track the express car was hauled to a siding mile distant on top and in the debris of the combination car. How the negro passengers in this compart- ment which Is known as the "Jim Crow" part of the train, escaped, none of them being killed, is beyond expla- nation.
 The heavy engine of the train plow- ed into the private car of President Spencer, in which he and his guests are supposed to have been sleeping. Immediately the private car caught fire. The wreckage was piled around the engine as though placed there by human hands to be consumed. Every portion of woodwork on the engine was burned, and the monster machine stands there torn and twisted and will have to be turned down the embark ment as 1t is useless.
 Dispatcher Davis was alive when he was taken from under the wreckage. He was crushed about the lower DOT ton of the body and was conscious un- til the end. He asked that word be sent to his wife and child. The death of MT. Davis was touching. He stated to his rescuer that he knew he was dying and knew that the end could not be far off. "Place your finger on my mouth," he said. Tt feels so cool and good" He pleaded with the gen. tleman, who was also passenger on the train, not to leave him, and for ten minutes this man stayed with him until he saw that nothing more could be done for him. One of the worst phases of the accident was the heart less manner in which few passengers and some of the attaches, especially some of the porters of the Atlanta train, ransacked cars for plunder.
 F. M. Curtis of Jamestown, N. Y., who was passenger on the Jackson vile train, saw one negro porter go through a lady's grip. He saw him throw away such things as were of no value to him and appropriate those things that he wanted. Mir. Curtis de- clared that he would have certainly killed the porter if he had had some thing to do 1t with.
 Not few passengers engaged in this ghoullsh business, and large number of valuables and much money which was scattered about the wrecked trains were taken.
 Mir. Curtis, who was on his way to High Point, N. C., on business mis- sion, was the hero of the bour. It was claimed by some of his fellow pas sengers that to his work and general ship belongs the credit of the rescue of n dozen persons who would have perlshed but for his efforts. Several persons not seriously wounded were taken out from the two cars that were burned. and six negro passengers were taken from the combination coach of the forward train, They were literally covered with heavy baggage, which had been thrown through the light partition between their portion of the car and that set apart for the baggage. They were badly hurt, most of them having broken legs, some of them both legs broken, and one or two with fractured skulls. All of them have numerous cuts and bruises, but the physicians attending them believe all will recover with the possible ex- ceptIon of an aged woman who may be fatally hurt. These were brought to the City hospital.
 II. B. Spencer, the sixth vice presi- dent of the Southern railway, was a passenger on northbound train from the south, which reached the scene of the wreck few minutes after it had occurred. He was present when the charred body of his father was taken from under the locomotive.
 Samuel Spencer. president of tie Southern Railway company. was a resident of Washington, but his bust ness headquarters were in New York. He was one of the prominent railroad men of the United States and for near ly twenty years had been at the head of one or more great railroad enter prises. At the time of his death. in ad- dition to the Southern. he was presI- dent and a director fin the Alabama Great Southern Railroad company. the Cincinnati. New Orleans and Pacific Railway company. the Georgia South ern and Florida Railway company and the Mobile and Ohio Railroad com pany.
 MT. Spencer was born in Columbus, Ga, in 1S47 and was educated in the University of Georgia and.the Univer- sIty of Virginia. In 1872 he married Iouisa Vivian Benning at Columbus.