The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-09-22


In the northbound car there were
only a few capable of giving aid to the
dying. Everybody did what they could
and from the fields came the farmers,
who either had witnessed the accident
or who had been summoned by neigh
bors. Word was flashed by telephone
to Bluffton and a special car was load
ed with all the physicians available
and sent to the scene. At nightfall all
the dead and injured had. been re-
moved and the wrecked cars were ly-
ing beside the right of way. A bon
fire illuminated the spot of one of the
greatest, if not the greatest, electric
traction wreck in the history of the
country.
Around each of the two BIuffton
undertaking establishments tonight
there is a crowd of mourners. ropes
keeping back the idly curious from the
rooms where lie the torn. bodies. The
schools and the local courts will be
closed for the rest of the week
No official of the Fort Wayne & Wa
bash Valley Traction line would VEN
ture an opinion tonight on whom was
to blame for the accident
One heroic act which will stand out
In the annals of the wreck Is that per-
formed by Conductor Spiller of the
northbound car. Though injured Sc
verely, he staggered down the track
and tagged a limited train, only a
short distance away.
Many Bodies MangIed.
1t .Jas a long hard task to remove
the bodies The, dead and injured were
laid in rows at the side of the tracks.
Farmers wives brought sheets to cover
the dead and to make bandageS for the
wounded. The bodies were all horribly
mangled. Because of the broken bones
the postures of the victims we're terri
bly, distorted, the bodies being en-
tangled with the timbers of the crush
ed cars.
To add to the horror of the situation.
flies settled on the long rows of dead
and injured in great sWarms. The
physicians had little assistance froTn
the townspeople and farmers, who were
dazed by the accident, and the injured
suffered the extremity of their hurts
for two hours before they were re-
1ieved by the lotions and narcotics
brought by the physicians. All the
time, pending the arrival of the physl-
clans, the injured writhed and scream
ed in pain, and the crowd that had
gathered about them stood awe-stricken
and helpless to aid them.
Reporter Finds Brothers Body
Ross Nelson, a reporter on the Bluff
ton Banner, was sent out to cover the
wreck. While he knew that many in
habitants of his own town were in the
tll-fated car, he had no knowledge thai
a relative was in the wreck until he
uncovered the body of his brother,
Harold.
DR.. L. H. Cook, of Bluffton, was one
of those summoned to aid the injured.
In going through the debris he came
across the corpse of his brother, H. d.
Cook, a grocer, who had been crushed
to death.
Conductor Del Wilson, of the south
bound car, told a graphic story of the
wreck. He said:
II was going toward the rear of my
car to get the keys from my locker
with which to unlock a switch that we
were approaching. This switch has a
dead end, and unless it is unlocked We
would have run into the ground. We
were then about a quarter of a mile
from Kingsland. Suddenly all the stuff
in the car began to pile up around me.
did not hear any crash or any noise
Things just seemed to rise up all
around me and I could not do any
thing to stop them. Then 1 lost con-
seriousness, guess, for the next thing
knew was in the grove near the
wreck"
Scene of Horror.
John r. Boyd of Marion, Ind. was
probably the only passenger aboard the
Inflated local car in the Kingsland hor-
ror who escaped without bruises from
the wreck.
81 decided to avoid the crush said