Perth Amboy evening news., 1907-01-03
DEATH LIST
REACHES. IS
All But Three of Those in Rail.
road Accident Were MeSi-
can WOrkmen.

TOPEKA, Kan, Jan. 3.--Thirty- five
persons, all Mexicans but three, were
killed and the bodies Of thirty Mex
leans were moderated in a head-on
collision of two passenger trains of the
Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific rail.
road near Volland.
Fifty-fve were badly injured. The
wreck occurred while both trains were
running slowly on a curve in q cut
where the grade was steep.
AL Link; a negro porter, died in the
wrecked tourist car.
All the killed were in the southbound
train except a tramp, who was on the
baggage a of the northbound train.
This tramp and a workman accompa-
nying a gang Of thirty-two Mexicsn la
borers were the only Americans killed
so far as known, although a passenger
says that a woman and a child were
burned in a tourist car.
The wrecked trains run between Ell
Paso and Chicago.
The cars went into the ditch, and
several of them caught frc. Many of
the bodies of the victims We're consum-
cd by the flames. The injured are be-
ing brought to Topeka on a relief train.
Blame for the collision seems TO rest
on John Lynes, the telegraph operator
at Volland, who has disappeared. Or
ders had been issued for Nos. 30 and
30 to pass at Volland. These orders
had been sent to the operator at Vol
land, who was instructed to hold No.
20 at that point. For some reason he
failed TO deliver the order to No. 20,
and the latter train went by, meeting
No. 80 a few miles west of yolland.
Lynes fed before the wreck occur
red, but was captured later and
brought to the county jail here. Five
minutes before the trains met he wired
the dispatcher as follows:
mo. 20 has gone, and | have gone
also"
Then he left his key. y
Even with this dispatch in hand
there was no possible way of prevent
ing the wreck.
AS far as the officials of the Rock
I'm AiNlt hiOh dL Ills lillG, all lnc
killed and seriously injured We're pas
sengers on No. %. Few If any passen-
gers on No. 80 We're seriously hurt.
Both trains were heavy ones.
Just before the collision Engineer
Mcmahon and Fireman Brown Of No.
30 and Engineer Slator and Fireman
Sweeney Of No. 20 jumped. All four
escaped injury.
An interpreter for the Mexicans was
questioned as he lay slowly burning
to death under the wreckage. He said
there were over thirty Mexicans in
their party going from Kansas City to
Ell Paso to work for the Rock Island
company.
Most of the injuries were due to the
setting of the emergency brakes. Most
train was thrown to the car floor by
the quick setting of the brakes. The
northbound train was running ten
miles an hour up grade. The Next
cans were pinioned under the seats,
and the doors were jammed so they
tOuIu lOl get Oul. Ill luc CHILL car
also many passengers were held down
by the seats.
The train caught fire from the gas
tanks, which were broken. The pas
sengers in the ear cars escaped in
nightclothes and dressed in the mud
beside the tracks. Then came the cries
for help among the Mexicans in the
smoking car and the people pinioned
fast in the chair car. Every man and
nearly every woman on the train tried
to rescue the un%fortunates. but the
flames o became too hot to permit
of approaching the car.