Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-17

| Assistant superintendent Williamson, VINO
was with the others in the cars ahead of
the first passenger car. telephoned to Gen.
eral Manager Smith that thirty are dead
| and possibly fifty. At $780, Just after this
message, a special train was sent out to
carry the injured to- hospitals in White
| Plains. Mount Vernon and to the station
| hospital. The worst hurt are being ia en-
| to White Plains and Mount Vernon.
mo exact estimate Of the injured can
be made now. The four passenger cars
were crowded The capacity of each car
| Is sixty persons, so that there were at
least 240 persons In the passenger
| coaches"
The station entrances were besieged by
hundreds Of persons trying to get news
from the wreck. The crowd was fright
ened. and all sorts Of rumors gained cur
rency. that did not help matters to any
extent.
Was Going Fast
Among the passengers who told Of the
terrible speed at which the train rounded
the curve were Legard Walker Of Mount
Kisco. Mr.. Walker said that all the pas
sengers were discussing the speed when
the rear car was snapped off.
Edward Schumaky of White Plains. who
Is employed by New York realty COM
pany. was one of the few persons in the
rear car to get out. He said that he was
thrown against seat post on the opposite
side Of the car and while he lay there
pinned beneath wreckage the body of
another man, whose head was crushed to a
pulp, was hurled on top of him. SchHmaky
lay there helpless under the other mans
body until the flremen and other rescue
workers pulled away the wreckage.
Nearly all oil hat
valuables, which were scattered like chaff
along the seven long blocks of bloody
tracks. Among the losers were Willard Z.
Sniffen, who said he had been connected
with Tiffany's for twenty years. He lost
his suit case containing 81, 500 cash and q
lot of jewelry.
Sixteen Bodies Gone.
At 1 o'clock there were sixteen bodies in
the Bronx Park police station, exclusive Of
those that had died on the way to hos
pitfalls and in the hospitals. The police es-
timated that there must have been more
persons killed whose bodies had been torn
to pieces and not yet recovered. Superin-
tendent Ira Mccormick of the Harlem d.
vision said he believed the wreck had been
caused by the splitting of a rail, due to
the weather. Coroner Schwanneke was
inclined to accept this view. The pas
sengers said that the rear car had left the
rails as though 1t had been snapped on
like the cracker on the end Of whip.
Probably the names Of all the injured
Will never be known. Many men and
women who got out with slight cuts and
bruises hurried UP the enbankment and
ran Historically into houses in the neigh
borhood.
They waited long enough to have their
wounds bathed and then hurried to try to
find friends who had been hurt or killed.
The first sound that came from the dark
gully where the train was whipping itself
to finders was succession of crashes sharp
and quick like the rapid swapping Of
whip. Then the cries Of the injured rising
above the swapping of timbers and the
rasping of iron. Those who happened to
be crossing the viaduct over the tracks at
2O7th street and people in the houses on the
right of the embankment blundered down
the steep sides of the cut in the dark in the
direction Of the noise. There was no light
save a reddening flicker where fire was
burning under the smoking car
Twisted rails and broken car ends al
most blocked the path of the rescuers
For 200 yards from the point where the
train first jumped the track to the rear
end of the last overturned car the track
side was strewn with twisted figures and
scraps of timber and steel.
Pushed Way Through.
The police of the fremont street station
found lanterns and pushed their way
through the crowd about the wreck to-
ward the twisted mass on the tracks. AL
most at the same time that they arrived,
firemen came down the side of the cliff
with axes and neutrality-suspicious. to work
at the blaze in the smoking cars.
1t was only when the reserves from
the Bronx Park station. under command of
Capt. McGlynn. and squads Of other police
from every station north of Harlem ar
rived on the scene that the work Of rescue
began to be at all systematized.
At first there was only one doctor on the
scene. Police Surgeon Donovan. He estab-
lished temporary dressing station near
the last overturned car, and there by the
light Of a single lantern he gave first aid
to the injured. Some were able to walk
to him, carrying broken arms or with
Understanding wounds about the face.
Others there were that were carried before
the police surgeon on stretchers made of
two pieces of timber or on a door picked
up in the wreckage. AS fast as the wound
ed were got out they were carried up the
I'LL " the HOtIu street. VldOuCt, ana Cnere
placed in ambuances, which had responded
to the general call sent in by the police
to six hospitals. The work Of rescue was
difficult In many instances the police
and the volunteer workers who were first
on the scene. had to pry the wounded from
under car seats and heavy trucks with
such rough implements as they could gather
from the junk head of the wreck.
In one instance two policemen and cit
izen worked most hour to extrcate a
woman and her child from underneath a
seat in the last car. They were Mrs. Chas
Gilchrist and her daughter Hannah, four
years old. Mrs. Gilchrist escaped with only
long rip across her forehead. The baby,
whom she had protected with her body,
was absolutely unframed.
The Wounded.
Hardly had the procession of wounded be-
gun to make its way up the hill when In
spector Walsh and fifty extra policemen
arrived The first work that the inspector
set his men to do was to clear away the
crowd who had blocked the gully where
the wrecked train lay. The police had to