The San Francisco call., 1907-01-03
LETS TRAIN co ON
To DISASTER
Operators Negligence Cause
of Great Loss Of Life
in Collision in Kansas
FIRE ADDS HORROR

TOPEKA, Kans.. Jan. 2.-@T-w-e-n-
t-y n-i-n-e haas g-O-n-e a-n-d
a-l-s-O-"
shortly before o'clock this morning
the train dispatcher I'm the Chicago
Rock Island and Pacific Railroad office
in Mcfarland heard the foregoing mes-
sage. clicked of BY John Lynes. the boy
land, twelve miles farther west. In an
instant he knew that the halting, in
definite words meant.
Train No. %, weStbOund, from Kan
sas City and Chicago, had left the sta
tfOn where IL had orders 10 meet No
80, the passenger train coming from EI
PasO. and was rushing with ifs load OF
human freight 10 destruction only a
few miles away. The dfspatchers real
fEed that NO help could reach the trains
rushing on TO disaster, so they prepared
10 await the news which WIS TO tell
them that more than thirty persons had
been killed and at least as many more
injured. They began calling for relief
trains before the awful collision Oc-
under way by the time definite word OF
the disaster came.
MANY MEXICANS KILLED
Four white men. a negro train porter
and about thirty Mexican laborers lost
their lives and fifty-Ave persons were
/ injured in the collision, which occurred
four miles west of Volland at 5:1C
! o'clock.
The dead
JULIUS BERME1sTER, Davenport
Iowa. aged 3S.
WILLIAM T. MILLER, Soldier City
Kans
ALBERT T LINK. colored porter.
+ FRANK SAYRE. passenger, New
] Tondon No
MEXICAN LABoRERs. numbering
supposedly between twenty-five and
thirty persons.
w II. osG0OD. Mitcheltown. Iowa
The fatally injured: Holoyn Alverico
Mexican laborer; Bertall Ybarra. Mex
lean laborer. head crushed. left leg
] fractured. right leg so badly crushed
that amputRtion was necessary
The more seriously injured; r. A
Hicks. 2Sl6 Tracy avenue. Kansas
City. Mo-; William Douglass, Nevada
No: @. Harrison. baggageman. Kansas
City. Mo: +. II. Dauchy, assistant en-
4 gineer; ". A. Willett, Peabody. Kans
MEET ON A CURVE
The trains were Nos. % and 80, run
T ming between Chicago and FL Paso
j They met on a sharp curve with fearful
7 impact Adding 10 the horror OF the
collision, fire from the lamps in the
cars and from the locomotives was cOn-
municated to the wreckage and spread
rapidly. consuming FIVE OF the cars OF
train No. 29, westbound, and burning
a number Of the passengers. All but
three Of those who perished are thought
to have been Mexican laborers. who
were on their way from Columbus
Junction. Ohio, to Mexico.
The officials of the company place The
blame on John Lynes. the nineteen.
Iyear-old telegraph operator at Volland
7 who failed to stop train No. 29 at his
station after receiving orders to hold Il
there until No 80 had passed. Lynes IL
being held by the authorities of Wa
baunsee County, at Alma, for investi'
cation.
BY the light of the flaming wreckage
passengers who were unlnjured worked
heroically to save those who were
pinned fast beneath the mass of splin-
tered tirnbers and twisted iron. The
lack OF axes with which to chop away
the sides Of the cars was a great him
drance to the early rescue work.
RELIEF Is PROMPT
In an hour and a half from the timt
OF the wreck the first relief train, from
Mcfarland. Kans.. bringing surgeon'