Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1907-01-03
Disastrous Head-0n Collision
in Western Kansas, Attrib-
uted to Negligence of Youth
fuI Telegraph Operator,
FIFTY-FNE PASSENGERS
BADLY HURT IN CRASH
SpIintered Cars Take Fle
From Overturned Stoves
Cremating Bodies Of Dead.
Victims Mexican LaborerS,

lBy Morning journal Special Lensed Wire
Topeka, Kas. Jan Pour white
men, a negro train porter and abou
thirty Mexican laborers lost their lives
and fifty-fve persons We're injured
when two passenger trains on the Chi.
cago, Rock Island & Pacific railroad
colided head-on four miles west OF
Voland, Kansas. at $40 o'clock this
morning.
The Dead;
JULIUS BERMEISTER, Davenport
Iowa.
WILLIAM 7. MILLER. soldier
Kansas City.
! ALBERT LINK, Topeka, colored
porter
FRANK sAYRE, passenger, New
London, Mo.
w. II. OsGOoD, Mitchelltown. la.
MEXICAN LABORERS, numbering
supposedly to be twenty-five and
thirty persons.
The Fatally Injured;
/ Holyon Alvario, Mexican laborer,
left leg broken. left arm broken, in
jured Internally and badly crushed
! Beraallay Bara, Mexican laborer,
1 head crushed left leg fractured, right
Ileg so badly crushed that amputation
] was necessary.
The More Seriously Injured:
II. A. Hicks, Kansas City, injured
internally,
william Douglas, Nevada, Mo, col
lar bone broken, right ankle dislo-
Gated and fractured. head bruised.
G. Harrison. baggageman, Kansas
City, head cut and hurt internally.
~ istn
left arm badly torn.
w. A. Wellett, Peabody Kas., arms
burned
william r. Miller, was riding the
blind baggage and was crushed to
death.
A man who has just returned from
the scene of the wreck says that over
thirty persons were burned to death.
1t Is impossible to identify the dead
Mexicans.
The exact number OF dead Will pro-
badly never be known, as the bodies
of a number of Mexicans We're COM
pletely destroyed by the flames and
the charred bodies crushed to ashes
by the removal OF the wreckage.
Jack Slater, the engineer of train
No 20 saw the other trains headlight
as the engine came around the curve
and jumped. after applying the
brakes, escaping practically unin-
jured His tram had been brought al
most to a standstill when the crash
came.
Conductor William Griles. of train
NO 2g was sleeping in a seat in the
smoker. when he felt the emergency
brakes applied. Diyining their use he
hurled himself through window and
escaped with a broken collar bone
Rock Island engine No. 1894, which
pulled No 20 this morning is the same
locomotive that drew the Rock Island
passenger train which was wrecked
at Willard, Kas., in January 1904, re-
sulting in the loss of nearly twenty
lives. The two wrecks occurred al
points less than 80 miles apart. The
same engine has been i'm three other
wrecks i'm the same locality.
Ii is not known to a certainty that
Julius Barmeister OF Davenport. Ia, Is
dead, but there is practically no
chance that he is alive. He was one
of a party of eight homeseekers from
Davenport who were riding in the
chair car. Shortly before the collision
he had gone into the smoker, and
since the wreck his companions have
been unable to find any trace of him
or his body 1t is thought he was
burned to death and the corpse
charred beyond recognition.
At the local hospitals tonight all of
the injured are reported to be doing
well with the exception of Bara and
Alvario. two MeXicans, who cannot
recover.
Miss Saddler. of Mcintyre. Ia.
professional nurse. was on the ill-
fated train at the time of the collision.
She was only slightly bruised and
rendered services Of incalculable value
caring for the injured before the ar
rival Of the surgeons
Lynes the operator, is still in jail at
Alma tonight.
The people of Waubaunsee county
are all in sympathy with Lynes and
and effort TO convict him OF man
slaughter. II made, Will probably ran.
Twelve bodies which were burned
beyond recognition lie in a boXcar AT
Alma. Kas.. tonight They VIII be
buried tomorrow afternoon
A charred body. supposed TO be that
Of "a woman. has been taken from the
wreck Various pieces OF jewelry'
blackened by the flames. were found
together with q few long hairs Slick
ing to the charred bones.
Two inquests will he held, one az
Topeka and one al Alma
The trains were Nos 20 ana 90
running between Chicago and El faso.
They met on a sharp curve with tuil
impact. Adding 90 the horror of the
collision. fire from the lamps in the
ears and from the locomotives was
communicated 90 ihe spliniered
wreckage and sprea4 rapidly. eonum-
ing five of the foranrd cars of Train
No 90. westbound, and burning
number of the passengers. All but
three of those who rerished are
thought n have been Mexican labor