The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1910-03-04

senger trains into the canyon at Well
ington on the Great Northern who
reached Scenic Hot Springs give vivid
descriptions of the horror. When the
snow slipped from the mountainside
and swept the passenger trains, four
huge electric motors, three locomo-
tives and rotary snow pillow, the wa
ter tank, part of the coal shed and
the motor shed over the brink they
say it was like riding in storm
tossed ship. N
\ There was an electric storm rag
ing at the time of the avalanche.
Lighting flashes were vivid and a
tearing wind was bowling down the
canyon. Suddenly there was a dull
roar, and the sleeping men and wo-
men felt the passenger coaches lifted
and borne along When the coaches
reached the steep declivity they wereI
rolled nearly 1000 feet and buried
under 40 feet of snow.
Chas. Andrews, an engineer, whose
home is at Leavenworth, escaped
from the doomed coaches Is minutes
before the avalanche descended be-
cause, he declared, he had received
an occult warning. Andrews was
awakened from a sound sleep at 1
o'clock in the morning by dream
voice, which told him to arise. He
lay in his bunk for few minutes,
unable to go back to sleep or to I'M
derstand the strange feeling of i'm
pending disaster. Moved by pow
er which appeared to Andrews to
come from a source other than physi-
cal, he arose and dressed. He walked
to the clubhouse, where other men
were sleeping and sat down alone.
Fifteen minutes after he had left
the train there was the mighty sound
of the swiftly moving snow and crash
of timber. He ran to the door and
watched the white death move ma
jestically across the track. Moved
by the horror of what he had seen
and with the strange scream voice
fresh in his memory, Andrews gave
thanks more reverently than he had
ever done before.
Thought it End of World.
Ira Clary and H. Purcell, conduct
ors in charge of rotary trains, were
among those who were swept into the
canyon with the wrecked coaches.
Purcell is a veteran of the Spanish
American war and he and Clary are
close friends They slept in the
third-class car On the fast mail, No.
27.
IT thought the end Of the world
had GOMEZ said Clary today. "The
car in which I was sleeping appeared
to be picked up and tossed about like
a feather. Then it began to roll
over and / was thrown from the top
to the bottom and from the bottom
to the top five or six times.
''It seemed to me that I had been
thrown about for 20 minutes before
there was a crash that sounded above
the roar Of the sliding snow. The
mail car struck big tree which
stood in our path and popped open
like an egg shell. When realized
anything I felt sensation of suffo-
cation and I found that l was buried
six feet under the snow. I dug my
way out and within a short time was
above the wreck.
81 heard Purcell calling and
that Purcell?' and he replied, 1T sure
is By the flashes of lightning I saw
his hand sticking out of the snow
and it took me 20 minutes to get
him out. I was barefooted in the
snow and was dressed only in shirt
and trousers. When I gave the last
pull on Purcell his boots fell on top
of him. Purcell put on the boots
and I put on his socks.
cit was raining dismally and the
trees all about us were cracking and
screening. We could hear people
calling for help and we began to do
what we could. We got Charlie
Smart out unhurt and did what we
could to assist others who were pin
ned down by wreckage or buried in
the snow. A fireman whom we knew
as Curly was fast near one Of the
locomotives.
"The steam from the engine had
melted big cavern beneath the snow
crust and when Purcell went to help
Curly he fell into this steaming caul-
iron. We thought that Purcell
would be boiled alive"
Fierce Storm Raging.
Ray Forsyth. one of the injured
passengers, was in a car In which
there were I'VE women and seven