The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-21

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 1 hand the sack of peanuts and in the other a few sticks of sticky stick candy. 
 with his mother and when he regained | his senses after the crash she lay dead
 beside him. They were in the first car l of the train and young Eddy said that he could see the freight approaching as the | excursion swung around the curve The
 next moment the trains came together
 with a horrible crash" he said. 'l was l soaked with water from the tender of
 the engine which was torn to pieces. The l air was full of flying objects and terrible noises. When I regained my senses l was pinned in the wreck. l looked around l for my mother and there she was uedu. | One of her arms was cut off and lay
 couple of feet away and she was horribly l mangled I managed to release myself
 and dragged my mother out or the wreck"
 Farmers Ran to Help. One of the passengers who jumped from a window of the rear coach after
 the collision almost lighted upon Engi-
 neer Alvord of the passenger train, who
 had leaped from his engine and sat on the bank watch in hand trying to learn from it whether any blame for the mis- take rested with him.
 The crash of the colliding trains was heard for a great distance up and down the tracks and many farmers working
 nearby realizing that a tragedy had oc- cured hurried from their homes with bedding, cloth bandages and stmulants. They joined in the rescue work while physicians hurried to the scene from all the neighboring towns. Numbers of the uninjured women passengers tore strips
 from their clothing to help bandage the
 wounds of the suffering until surgeons arrived.
 Six Coaches Crushed.
 The wreck occurred on a perfectly
 straight, level piece of track The heavy freight and passenger trains came to-
 gether with terrific force and six of the eleven passenger cars were entirely wrecked. When the uninjured persons re- covered from the shock and crawled from
 the wreckage. they at once began eXtri- eating the dead and injured. Messengers i were rushed to this village and to Ply
 mouth and all the doctors from this place
 and neiglboring villages were hurried to
 Mrs 1di lie 5lnsmore of Ionia, a pas
 senger on the wrecked train, describing | the horror, said
 ! My husband and myself were in the , sixth coach, right behind the first five In which the greatest loss of life occurred. There was a terrible crash and the train came to a sudden stop, throwing us out of our seats. Instantly our car was filled
 with terror-stricken people trying to fight their way out. No one knew just what had happened, but every occupant Of the car seemed to feel instinctively there had been a tragedy, and seemed to be filled with fear Their clothes were torn and thy inflicted severe bruises on one another in their mad efforts to get to the ground That was before we realized that our car
 was not damaged, and that they were not 4, clt U of the coach we found the engine and the first five cars piled up beside the tracks.
 while shreks of pain and cries for mercy filled the air.
 "The first five cars were well filled with people and 1t Is in these that most Of the bodies were found"
 Superintendent Arrives.
 After arriving here with the wrecking
 train from Detroit and looking over the situation General Superintendent Trump says the blame for the wreck rests with the crew of the freight which was a west
 bound local They had orders. MT. Trump
 says to wait at Plymouth for the excur-
 sion train, which had the right of way.
 Instead they proceeded on towards Salem and the collision resulted Many of the freight cars were also piled up in the heap of wreckage, which is so great that 1t will take twelve hours to clear the 1 is definitely known whether the thirty two bodies now recovered comprise the entire list of dead. Three of the coaches
 were telescoped by the terrific impact of the heavy freight train and the fourth and fifth coaches were smashed 10 match wood. Although there were probably loo
 children among the excursionists, 1t Is a strange fact that few of them were in- jured Nearly all of the dead and injured are men. Passengers on the wrecked train say that the passenger was running about forty miles an hour when the trains met.
 Trains Met In a Cut. The banks alongside the tracks at the
 crossing where the collision occurred are | ten feet high and space between them for several hundred feet Is literally filled with wreckage. The railroad vfeckers are | making all speed possible in clearing It, but even with the assistance Of steam cranes at each end, it will be twelve
 hours before it can be definitely stated whether all the bodies are out The trains met In a cut which is In the arch of a four-mile long curve in the track, and the banks run up for ten | feet above the rails at the point of the col | lsion.
 In addition to the seventy-fve to 100 peo- | pie who were severely injured, there are | scores more who were cut and bruised by i being thrown about in the injured cars when the trains collided
 l Several young girls. who had been sit l ting beside open windows of the rear coaches, were hurled through them to the 1 tracks when the trains met. One of the | countless pathetic sights about the cars full of injured men, women and children was Mrs. George Van Amburgh with her | uninjured 2-year-old babe asleep in her | Ian and the child's 9-year-old sister close | by suffering from broken jaw and bad wound about the face.
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