The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1908-01-15
TOURISTS IN AWFUL WRECK
A HUNDRED TUMBLE THROUGH
TRESTLE NEAR ROME.
Wealthy People From the North
Were Speeding South on the First
Florida Special of the Season.

Florida Special of the Season.
One of the worst wrecks in the
history of the Southern railroad
Tuesday afternoon killed outright
three persons and injured 43 others.
There were 115 people on the train,
including employees, and out of the
entire count there were not five who
got out without a scratch. The 43
referred to as injured were so badly
hurt as to have to be carried away
on stretchers.
The wreck occurred at Copper
Creek trestle near Dallas, Ca, be-
tween Atlanta and Chattanooga.
The trestle was 400 feet long.
An Elegant Train.
This was the first trip of the sea-
son for the special Florida train of
the Southern. 1t was crowded from
engine to observation car, and car
ried 80 passengers, most of them
very wealthy people from the north
The train, which was made up at
Cleveland, Ohio, consisted of five
Pullman sleeping cars, one dining
car and combination sleeper and
observation car. 1t was pulled by
an enormous mogul that was making
it's first trip. Without warning, just
as the big engine had gotten over
the Copper Creek trestle, two and
half miles below Dallas, the supports
gave way and the entire trestle, with
it's rich burden of human life and
elegant coaches, went down into the
abyss twenty feet below.
Engine Was Too Heavy.
No cause can be assigned for the
wreck except that the engine was
too heavy for the trestle, loosened
as it had been by the recent heavy
rains. The trestle was some four
hundred feet long, just long enough
to hold the entire train, and the
whole four hundred feet are one
mass of broken timbers and kind
ling wood. The trestle was on a
slight curve That the wreckage did
not catch on fire and burn was
God send. If the accident had oc-
Cured at night when the lights were
burning hardly an injured person
could have got out alive, for many
of the injured were pinned in so
they had to be cut out.
Chair Rung Through Body.
One of the worst injured is Mrs.
Hoover of Cleveland, Ohio, who was
accompanying her sick sister to
Florida. She was run through with
chair rung, as if she had been
pierced with a javelin, and there is
scarcely a chance for her recovery.
The dead are Engineer James Ed
wards of Atlanta; D. B. Snapp of At
lanta, road foreman of engines;
Nose Baldwin, negro fireman OF AT
lanta, and Alexander Forester, a
wealthy retired business man Oh
Cleveland, Ohio, who died in an At
lanta hospital Thursday.
Engineer Edwards had to be cut
out from under his engine.
Terrible Suffering.
Dallas is a small town of posi-
bly, 500 people The doctors in this
neighborhood were called upon to
help as much as possible to alleVi-
ate the sufferings of the injured be-
fore the relief trains arrived on the
scene. They went through the shat
tered cars giving morphine here and
| a bandage there, but even then the
sufferings of the passengers was ter
rife.
One Coach Broke in Two.
One of the cars, when the wreck
occurred, broke as clearly half in
two as the fastidious diner breaks
his French roll in the morning, one
half rolling down one side and the
other half down the other. Conduc-
tor Thamer, who was standing about
middle way of it, was catapulted
into the air, landing in a wet, marshy
field knee deep in mud and unhurt.
| hurt.
T;x,ac in a Tree