Evening star., 1912-11-11
MANY VICTIMS CREMATED
IN FIVE BURNING COACHES
Through Freight Crashes Into the
Rear Of Passenger Cars.
COMPANY BLAMES BRAKEMAN
Charged He Failed to Place Signals
as Ordered-Of Fourteen Bodies
Recovered Nine Are Negroes.
Bodies Badly Mangled.

NEW ORLEANS. November 11.-Fo'r-
teen or more persons We're killed a
forty-two seriously injured and fifty we ce
slightly hurt in a wreck on the 4aZ3o
and Mississippi Valley railroad near
MONTE. La, twenty-seven miles north OF
New Orleans. at midnight, when a
through freight train crashed into the
rear Of an excursion train of ten coaches.
Five of the coaches of the passenger
train were burned, and many Of the
wreck victims are believed to have been
cremated.
Four of Victims White.
Of the fourteen bodies recovered UP to
noon, nine were negroes and five white
persons. The majority Of the injured are
white. Practically all were from Louisi-
ana or south Mississippi.
An official statement issued by the rail-
road company placed the blame for the
wreck on a brakeman named Cunning
have signaled the freight train. The ex-
cursion train, hauled by two engines. left
New Orleans at IL pm.
In approaching MONTE one locomotive
broke down and the engineer signaled
TO the brakeman, it is said. to go back
twenty-five minutes behind the excursion
train.
Brakeman Failed to Obey Order.
This order, it is charged, the brakeman
failed to execute and the freight tore into
the rear Of the crowded passenger train
at a speed Of about thirty miles an hour.
Relief trains were sent from New Or
leans and Baton Rouge. Thirty Of the
injured. all negroes. were taken to Baton
Rouge. The dead and the more seriously
hnrt among the whites were brought 10
New Orleans and placed in hospitals
The ill-fated excursion train lett New
Orleans at IL O'Clock last night, carrying
several hundred people who had spent
Sunday In New Orleans. 1t slowed down
on approaching sharp curve near MONTE
soon after midnight, and the Ireignt tram
rashed into the rear coaches. Many OF
the victims were so badly mangied as 10
make identification impossible.
Scene of Confusion at Station.
The majority of the excursionists were
from points south of Woodville, Miss,
which Is thirty miles north of Baton
Rouge. The scene at the Union station
when the relief train bearing the dead
and injured arrived in New Orleans was
one of confusion.
Practically every ambulance in the city
had been summoned to take the injured
to hospitals and patrol wagons We're used
to move many of the dead to undertaking
esta blishments. The rear coach of the
excursion train was demolished. Prac-
ticalIy every one in this car was killed or
seriously injured. Among the badly
wounded were two women, and several
small children in the rear coach were
killed.
No Racial Lines in Rescue Work.
The two rear coaches which were tele-
scoped by the freight engine caught fire
Passengers who had escaped
injury rushed into the wrecked coaches
and dragged dead and injured from the
flames reach.
Several of the occupants Of the front
coaches who escaped injury were badly
burned in their <fforts to save those less
fortunate Whire men risked their lives
to save the injured negroes from the rap
id,y spreading fames, and negro men
rushed into the steam and flames to res
cue white persons as we'll as members OF
their own race