The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1909-02-12
TRAIN WRECKED ON I.C,
ONE DEAD, MANY SERIOUSLY
INJURED.
Coaches Torn to Splinters-Hun-
dreds of Passengers Make
Remarkable Escapes.

New Orleans and Chicago limited mai
train of the Illinois Central, known of
ficially as No. ., ran into an oper
switch at Coldwater, Miss, yesterday
morning at 5:34 and was completed,
wrecked, killing Martin Stanton, The
fireman, and perhaps fatally i%njuring thu
engineer, George Barnett, and seriously
injuring about fifteen others.
Fireman Stanton's body was thrown
twenty yards from where the engin,
utes after the wreck with his brains
oozing out of a big hole in his head
His face was horribly mutilated, being
smashed in as If it had been caught
between two mammoth pieces of iron
and flattened out. His arms and chest
were cut in a hundred places and the
bones in his lower limbs broken a dozen
or more times.
Engineer Barnett crawlcd out from
between the tender and tie engine. He
had been thrown against the broken
steam pipes that furnish heat for the
cars, and the flesh on his face and on
his chest was literally cooked. 1t is be-
lieved he cannot recover.
Officials of the Illinois Central who
went to the scene Immediately on Il re-
lief train say it is one of the most re-
markable wrecks known in the country,
inasmuch as the whole train was de-
rallied and practically wrecked, only
killing one person outright.
When the train hit the siding the en-
| CINE jumped the tracks and carried the
| whole train with it. Before Engineer
Barnett could reverse the steam it had
gone fifty yards from the main line, run
ming on the ends of the cross ties and
dragging the coaches behind it.
When the engine hit a smaller switch
to the right of the business track it
turned over and fell fifteen feet to the
right with its head toward the east. One
of the mail cars was jumped over the
wrecked engine tender, Lighting across
the tracks. 1t was completely demol-
ished. Every mail clerk in the car was
injured. 1t is believed some received in
ternal in juries that may prove fatal.
Every car besides the s~leepers was lit
orally torn into splinters. Loose mail
from the cars was scattered over the
ground for a hundred yards away. Six
teen registered letters were picked out
of the wreck and several pouches of
through mail fished out of the mail cars.
The crash of the wreck was heard for
a mile in the country. Farmers up at
that hour drove to the scene and turned
their wagons into ambulances.
Describes the Wreck.
William NJ. Scott of Marion, Ind, was
one of the passengers who escaped in
jury.
1T was the worst wreck | ever saw"
he said. Il have been in several during
my life, but | want to say that | never
saw the cars piled up or torn up as they
were.
Il cannot begin to describe the awful
scenes following the wreck. | was asleep
in my berth when the shock came. 1t
threw me out on the floor of the car and
up against the side of another berth.
"The minute the engine jumped the
track every light in the car went out and
the result was that men and women went
cropping in darkness ~endeavoring to find a
way out. / managed to reach the en-
trance of the car and Immediately saw
that there had been a terrible wreck. I
was first attracted by the grOans of some
poor fellow who called for help. Present
ly others came and we together rescued
an Italian tramp from between one of
the cars and the tender of the engine.
His body seemed cut all to pieces. We
laid him on the side of the small en-
bankment and he called in his own lam
guage for a Bible. BY this time several
ladies had climbed off the car and one
held it between his hands and offered up
a prayer, but his ~pleadings were drowned
by the terrible Kissing sound of steam
that was making it's escape from the
pipes under the wrecked engine. |
Passengers from the day coaches were
lifted out of the windows of the car.
Those not injured came out of their own
accord. There did not seem to be so
much excitement. The crew of the train
were the best workers | ever saw. Espe-
the conductor. I do not know his
name, but he moved about, giving orders
and reseuing the injured with as much
as if there had been no accident. |
"All along the road from the scene of
the wreck great crowds collected at the
to see the relief train. At one
small station the train stopped. Friends
and members of the family of one of the
injured were there to assist in carrying
The cot on which he lay to his home. I
vas told he was not seriously injured.
Matthews Will Die.
George Matthews, n of the postal
Jerks injured in the wreck, had both of
80 lcr, omr,fotod ka1ou tho kpno HE