The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1906-11-01

Divers At Work.
Divers and the crew of a wrecking
train are at work raising the sub
merged cars. The bridge is about
10 feet above the water.
Several causes are assigned for the
accident. One is that the rails spread;
another that the rails were not pro-
perly locked when the open bridge
was closed, after a pleasure yacht
which had just passed through.
The accident, however, was proba-
bly, due to rail turning in" It
appears that the rail, which was an
outside one on the right hand side
coming down, must have been out
of plumb about an eighth of an inch.
The sharp fiange of the electric train
caught this and twisted it inward.
Had it spread instead of twisting in
ward the accident never would have
have happened. This twist threw
the first car of the track and into
the water. The result was that the
second and third cars were dragged
with it.
The third car, however, caught on
the abutment of the bridge, where it
hung poised for a minute. There
was frantic rush Of the passengers
a
or more got out, and as the car
plunged over the edge others leaped
into the water. The last car that
went over the bridge fell upon the
others and slowly slid off into the
water. The moments delay, how
ever, gave several passengers the op-
portunity TO leap into the water be-
fore the car was finally submerged.
Bridgctender Crazed.
The man who may best be able to
tell what caused the accident is Dan
iel B. Stewart, the bridgetender. The
horror of the accident has temporari-
ly bereft him OF his reason. He is
Go years old.
He was the only person who wit
messed the plunge of the train with
its human cargo from a close point
of vantage. The scenes which fol-
lowed caused him to lose his reason
and when he was found hours after
ward he could not tell a rational
story.
Motorman Scott stuck to his post
and went down with his train. Con-
ductor Curtis also perished. The
third trainman, Brakeman Wood
proved himself a hero. When the
train left the rails and was humping
over the ties, Wood ran to the rear
door of the last car threw il wide
open and held it for the passengers
to escape. He held the door open
until the car slid off the bridge and
went into the water with it. He
then swan to the shore. His action
in holding the door open probably
saved many lives.
When the third car dropped into
the water Henry Roemer was in the
act of crawling from a window.
Freeing himself with an effort and
being a strong swimmer, Roemer set
about to help others. Swimming
along the side of the fast-sinking car
he kicked out the glass and thus gave
several passengers an opportunity
to escape One man was caught in
a window and was drowned before he
could extricate himself.
Work OF Rescue.
The work of rescue was begun a
few minutes after the accident oc-
Cured. Men on shore and railroad
signalmen in the towers within sight
of the bridge flashed the news of the
tragedy to the city and a general
alarm rushed railroad men and two
companies of firemen to the scene at
once. All sorts of water craft were
rushed into service and firemen with
axes cut through the roofs of the
cars, while others with oyster tongs
and boathooks grappled for bodies.
Within half hour after the wreck
thousands of people had rushed to
the scene and stood shivering with
cold and horror to watch the work of
the hundreds or more OF men en-
gagged in the work of getting out
the bodies.