Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-23

in two and split the car as with
cleaver.
The rear of the second-elass coacf
swerved to the inside, pulling the col
onist car, tirst-class coach and diner
off the bridge into the river and pull
ing over the Pullman beside the track
Fire added to the horror of the ac'
cident. Few survivors are in eondi'
tion to give accurate details of the
accident.
b. j. Pearee, commercial traveller
of Toronto, who, with Brakeman Nor
rison, is thought to be the only sur
vivor from the first-class coach, gave
a graphic account of his experience
Finding himself struggling in water
he reached the fan light in the end
of the car. broke the glass and screen
and worked through with his face
badly cut and scratched.
Climbed on Car
Running along the top of the first
class car, he found a space OF about
six feet separating it from the diner
Risking his life on the floating ice, he
almost reached the diner when he lost
his footing and was plunged into the
icy water, but a projecting pipe from
the roof of the diner was within
reach, and climbing up by means OF
diner to the shore.
The telegraph wires were all torn
down. and 1t was evident relief could
not be summoned by wire. 1t was five
miles to the village of Nairn, and the
drenched survivor ran the distance to
deliver a report of the wreck at the
Canadian Pacific depot at Nairn.
Many Still in Debris
to $3.50 p. m. and it is believed there
are thirty-five or forty still In the SUD-
merged cars.
Robert Burroughs of Montreal said
regarding the wreck;
my first intimation of anything
wrong was the pounding of the tracks
of the Pullman trucks. When the Pull
man went down the embankment l was
thrown into a corner, stunned and
covered with debris. Extricating my
self, l went down the car, clinging To
the seats.
Leaving the car, we climbed the en-
bankment to the second cOlOnist car,
which by this time was blazing. We
could hear the shrieks of women and
children inside. Men tried to quench
the flames by throwing snow, and
hands were burned and blistered as
they tried to tear away the burning
timbers, but their efforts were futile
1.-THE voices grew fainter, and as the
flames rose in a roar the cries died
away At the foot Of the embankment
half of the diner and the roofs of two
other cars were visible. All was silence
there.
Boy Taken from Car
1--WE returned to the Pullman to help
relieve the injured. A little boy,
wrapped in a blanket, was handed to
me to pass on.
''As | took him the wind blew the
blanket open. The child was terribly
cut, but was conscious. [ said to him,
Are you in much pain?' and he replied,
No, I'm all right but mamma is in
the water and his lips began to
quiver.'
The diner was so solidly frozen in
the ice that you might have thought it
had been there all winter" said a
passenger. Il passed there about mid
night. The dining car was visible to
about the bottom of the ventilator. The
rest was submerged and the ice had
frozen solid about it.
Il was speaking to one of the brake
men on the wrecked train, and he said
that when the smashed colonist car
started to burn on the trestle work of
the bridge parts of bodies kept drop
ping through on to the ice
Il never heard such terrible cries as
when those cars went over the bank:
I shall never forget it," said Conductor
Reynolds. Il put the killed at be-
tween forty and fifty. The first coach
carried about thirty-five or forty pas
sengers. and of this number one man
ESCAPED"