The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1910-03-11
THE WELLINGTON DISASTER
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Ill W LLLtiIOIVH UIOnO LII
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was wrong, and return to sleep, he got
up and dressed. Knowing that some
men were awake in a bunk house,
keeping watch, he made his way there
and few minutes after heard the aw-
full. rumbling sound made by the NOV
ing white force which carried death
and destruction to more than hundred
souls in the cars which he had Just left.
He says he does not know why the
fear of something dreadful about TO
happen drove him from the coaches,
but he just could not remain there any
longer and concluded to go to the
clubhouse where he could talk to
someone.
The most miraculous occurrence in
connection with the avalanche, says
Briggs, was the escape Of baby whose
parents were both killed. The law
was the only thing that stopped me
from stealing that kid" said Briggs.
The avalanche swept the child s
mother to the bottom OF the gulch,
horribly mutilating her. The father
was also carried down and badly
wounded about the head. He arose
an insane man and dropped dead soon
afterwards.
1t seems incredible, but the child
was found on top OF the snow, un-
harmed and unconcernedly babbling
and playfully tossing the snow about.
This child is at Wellington, content
edly cooling, the ideal of the camp.
Briggs helped to take out many
bodies. Though not certain, he be-
lieved that one of the bodies found
yesterday was that OF Conductor J. L.
Petit.
Alfred B. Hensell the surviving
mail clerk, though injured, insisted on
going back to the wreckage to get a
pocketbook containing the only pic
/ ture he had OF his mother.
It was surely an intervention of prov
idence that tempted Mrs. Blanche
Painter, prominent milliner Of Everett,
to leave the fated train at Leavenworth
and visit friends, instead of continuing
to Wellington and possibly sharing
death with the growing list now being
found. Mrs. Painters ticket was for
thru passage, but when Leavenworth
was reached a sudden unexplainable
impulse prompted her to leave the
train, with the intention of spending
only day here. She left here We'd
nesday, March 9th.
The searchers have very little to
guide them. The coaches and engines
were smashed so thoroughly, and
messed up so horribly that it will be
weeks before many are recovered, and
| it is Doubtful if all of the bodies will
ever be found. Where a board, or
part of a car, sticks up thru the snow
the seachers dig. Sometimes they
have to go many feet and then they
find a hand or an arm. Gruesome
finds are made, such as head sepa-
rated from the body. Bodies are found
wrapped in sleeping garments. Some
are still incased in their berths.
DR.. Hoxsey, railroad physician, re-
turned from Wellington yesterday
Afternoon. He left Wellington We'd
nesday afternoon about 8 clock. At
that time sixty-seven bodies had been
taken out Of the drift and tangle of ice,
iron and logs. A few OF the bodies OF
workingmen that were in the smoking
car at the time the slide struck had
been recovered. There were between
thirty and forty men, it is believed, in
this car. He says he cannot see how
the track will be cleared for thru travel
before Tuesday or Wednesday of next
week. He also said that seven of the
injured that had been in the tempo
rary hospital at Wellington would pass
thru here last night on their way to
Spokane. Several bodies would also
go thru on the same train.
Organize c. W. B. M.
Bv preyious arrangement Mrs. w. B.