The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-17
Score of Humans Roast
 to Death.
FEARFUL SCENES WITNESSED
Coaches Take Fire and Their
 Occupants Are Cremated.
Warrant sworn Out For Telsgraph Operator Who Failed to Deliver Message and This Caused the
 Cstastrophe.

Fueplo, colo, March lb.---A wreck accompanied with horrors. exceeded only by the Eden disaster, which oc- cured August '. 1904. on the line of the same railroad, resulted from head-on collision of two passengar trains on the Denver and Rio Grands Railroad. four miles east of Florence. | Col, at an early hour this morning. The trains were the Utah-Caltfornia express 70. 3, westbound from Den- yer. and the Colorado New Mexico ex- press No. l6. eastbound from Leadvtlia to Grand Junction. l They met on a sharp curve and were l less than two hundred yards apart whon the engineers discovered that a collision was imminent. It is known | that the engineer of the westbound train put forth every possible effort to ] bring his train to a stop, but his ef- forts were fruitless and, although he succeeded in checking the speed of his ! train, the crash that followed was beyond his power to prevent and he went to his death with his hand on the throttle, faithful to his charge. This much Is vouched for by his fireman, who. seeing the uselessness of remain ing in the face of sure death, jumped and saved himself. On tho conduct of the engine crew of the eastbound train 1t can only be said that they died at their post, for no one lives to tell the story of their heroism.
 The disaster was made more horrible by the manner of the death of many of the passengers. variously eatima- ted at from twenty to thirty-fave. Fira swept over the wreck, enguifing the victims in a caldron of flame and Ieav~ ing only charred and bIackened bones to tell the tale of slaughter.
 A list of the injured given out hY officials of the railroad company com. prises twenty-two names. None of tho injured is dangerously hurt. and 1t Is believed will recover. A list Of the dead made up from close investigation by responsible persons (the railroad officials refusing to make a list for pubIication) follows:
 The Dead and Injured.
 William Holz. engineer No. ls.
 Walter cosslett. engineer No. 8
 II D. sudduth. fireman No. 1s. Pu-. ebIo.
 Edward F. Haird. Deputy shsria. Denver.
 Archibald whitney. prisoner. on way to penitentiary at Canon City. in enarge of Baird. Denver.
 Mrs. William Burnside. daughter. and daughters child. all of Kansas. town not learned.
 4. N Barkle. salida. Colo.
 Enas Mcfarland. express messenger Denver.
 Taylor Hewitt. Lebo. Kas.
 Pearl Hewitt. 15 years of age. Lebcs Kas.
 Mrs. Catherine Hewitt and baby boy. Lebo. KaR
 Ed. cowley. Lebo. Kas.
 Mrs. Ed. Cowley. Lebo, Kas
 Mrs. Winona Hewitt. Lebo. Kas
 Fred Jones. Lebo, Kas.
 Fred Lemecooley, Denver.
 The Injured. riously.
 r. Peters. baggageman, Denver.
 James Proconone. Italy.
 Ira Elrod. Gypsum, Colo.
 Miss Mabel Fields, address not Eiven travelling to wolcott. Colo, serious.
 p. W. Hewitt Lsbo. Kas.
 Miss Mary Gooch Oakland. Cal.
 Thomas Webb. Tampa. Colo.
 R. W. Phillips. Caysville. Utah.
 O. c, House, Champa, N. M
 I. c. Ramsbottom. San Francisco.
 w. R. Page. Tampa. Colo.
 I. Kissel, New York.
 A, Gerber. New York. s+
 C. N. Wright. New York.
 James Page. Whitewater, Colo
 F. Fl. Sweeney. Clinton. Mo.
 J. l. Lotten, Bellflower. Mo.
 G. C. Clark. Portland. Colo.
 J. c. Veale. Denver. r
 J. s. Reef. LeadvilIe. Colo.
 B. l. Jones. Denver.
 4. l. Knous. OOuray, Colo.
 In BIinding Snow storm.
 In blinding storm which made fA almost impossible for the trainmen to sec ahead. the two trains collided head on at point midway between PortIand. and Adobe, twenty-five miles west of Pueblo at 2 o'clock this morning. Irns a NaNs FUIT Al eral Of the wrecked cars burst into flames and were consumed. a number of passengers being burned to death. More than thirty others were iniured but of these 1t is not thought any were fatally hurt. The cause of ths wreck is attributed to failure of an em. ploye of the road to deliver an order which changed the meeting place oR the two trains
 The Utah and California express No, 3. westbound, left Pueblo over an hour and half late and was given ordera to meet the Colorado and New Mexico Express No. i6, eastbound, at Florence. bound train was directed to pass the eastbound train at Beaver, about twelve miles east of Florence. The order should have been delivered to tho train crew at Swallow, but for some reason still unexplained the op-
  the meantime, the eastbound had re- cetved it's order and expected to meet the westbound train at Beaver.
 Both trains were running at the usual speed, the deep snow and high wind making 1t necessary to exercise excep- tional care. Suddenly both headlights flashed out from the darkness and it was realized for the first time that something was wrong. According to the story of Fireman J. H. Smith of the westbound train, Engineer Walter costett opened the emergency brake and the train was checked for an in~ stant but the slippery rails and the of the heavy train carried From the stories told by several of the trainmen who survived and who were in the forward part of the train, inc impact was scarcely noticeable, but the crushing grinding noise that fol- lowed warned them that something had been struck. Fireman Smith was the only one of tho engine crews to es-
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