The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1910-03-03
BY Associated Press.

Everett, Washn., March 2.-Tonight
the number killed by the avalanche
that crushed two Great Northern pas
senger trains at wellington is placed
at 81. While only twenty-thrce are
known to be dead, nearly two score are
thought to be buried in the wreckage.
communication with the scene is main
lained only by men with snow shoes.
Twelve bodies have been removed
rom deep gorge into which the train
Mas swept by the slide.
The railroad bunk house at yelling
ton is now hospital, where the in
Iured are being cared for. A Welling-
ton telegraph operator arrived from
the scene today, almost insane from
the sights he had witnessed.
AS details of the disaster are re-
ceived the horror grows. Twenty
three lives are known to have been
lost when the mass of snow, loose
stones and uprooted trees hurled the
cars containing seventy sleeping peo-
pie over the narrow ledge of the high
fine down to the bottom of the canyon
GOO feet below. When the last reports
were received from the scene of the
we're missing. Besides these a score
mr. seriously injured.
Complete lists of the injured cannot
A6 obtained until rescuers have dug all
The bodies out of the wreckage. The
lists available at present contain only
the names of trainmen killed and in
jured.
ONE CARRIED PASSENGERS.
The two trains that were carried
away by the great wave of ice and
snoy were the westbound Spokane
limited and the westbound transconti-
mental fast mall The latter carries
no passengers.
Most of the dead and injured are
believed to have been pass enga:s on
The Spokane express, forty of whom
were on the train at the time of the
disaster. Besides these, thirty work
men who had been engaged in the
battle against the drifts that had been
holding the two Inflated trains impris.
oned in the mountains since February
"a, were sleeping in the day coaches.
The avalanche rolled down the
mountain at 4:20 a. m. The two trains,
three locomotives, four powerful elec.
tric motors, the depot and water tank
wer swept off the ledge and deposited
loot of the mountain. The noise from
the snow slide, which was a mile long,
rould be heard throughout the valley
and Superintendent j. II. O'Neil, who
was directing the work of the night
shift, marshalled his men and hurried
TO the rescue
CRIES FOR HELP.
Groans and cries for help coming
from the jumbled heap of debris at
the bottom of the canyon indicated
that many persons imprisoned in the
wreckage were still alive and the res
Nuers worked With a feverish haste to
release them. AS fast as the injured
people were removed they were taken
60 the hospital at Scenic, three miles
away by mountain trail, but ten when
the long winding course is followed.
MESSENGER DISPATCHED.
A, messenger was dispatched at once
Tor help. The first news of the disas
ter was brought by John Wentzell, OF
wellington He staggered into Sky.
hon.ish, is miles from Wellington, yes
terday, and gasped out his story.
''All wiped out" he cried Nothing
but smooth snow where the tracks
stood and the trains were dumped into
the canyon"
He was so exhausted from his long
fight against the snow that it was sew.
pral hours before he could give 2 e..
herent story.
Bit by bit Wentzell's disiolnted
ntterances were pieced together in a
connected narrative. The avalanche
(contInued on Pace TwoO