The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-06-24
INQUEST TODAY
SIS Dead and $50 Injured Is
Toll of Circus Wreck.
Other Investigations May Be
Conducted Later.

Whereabouts OF Engineer AlOHZO OdT-
geant, Of the troop equipment train
that tore thru ck-Wallace
circus train at Ivanhoe, Ind, early
Saturday, killing and injuring scores
of circus people, was a mystery to the
county authorities here when the
coroner's inquest opened today.
Sergeant was reported to be under
arrest at Kalamazoo, Mich, but
Coroner H. c. Greene had not been
| notified. Greene declared he would
., file charges again Sergeant and in
stitute extradition proceedings to
bring him to the inquest If necessary.
Fireman Gustav Klause, of the
| equipment train. gave himself up to
\ the authorities today and testified at
| the inquest. The police would per-
NIT no one to question K1ause before
he was taken before the coroner's
| jury.
! Rumors were current that Klause
was alone in the engine cab when the
accident occurred.
| Flagman Testifies.
Oscar Tim, flagman of the circus
/ train, was the first witness to testify,
at the inquest. inn~swore that when
! the circus train stopped at Ivanhoe he
ran 200 feet to the rear and placed a
stop" torpedo. He then ran back
another hundred feet and placed two
other torpedoes on the rail. The
equipment train, he said, was two
miles back when the circus train
stopped.
| Lighted Fusees.
| Alter placing the torpedoes, Tim de-
clared he ran at top speed toward the
oncoming equipment train, placed a
lighted fusee beside the track and
| lighted a second which he hurled at
the engine cab as the train roared
past. The train was running at a
speed of about twenty five miles an
hour, he testified. and could have been
1 stopped in $50 feet.
/ R. w. johnson, conductor of the
circus train, corroborated Tinn's tes-
timony. Klause then was called to
| the stand.
Find Fifty Eight Corpscs.
Another check of bodies in Ham
mond and Gary morgues by Coroner
Greene showed a count of fifty-eight
corpses. Edward Ballard, one OF the
! circus proprictors, said that second
check of his payroll showed all his
employees but fifty-eight had been ac-
counted for as injured or unhurt.
Greene and Ballard believed the count
of fifty-eight represented the total
death toll OF circus performers. Other
persons who followed the circus
might have been on the train, Ballard
said. Greene is positive that there
are no more bodies in the wreckage
Several Injured Near Death.
Several of the los injured were near
death today and the mortality total
may be increased. A majority of the
injured, however. had left the hos
pitfalls today.
Hammond, June 24.-Two investi-
cations have been ordered by officials
into the causes of the railroad wreck
last Saturday on the Michigan Central
near Gary, in which eighty-five en-
ployes of the Hagenbeck-W Wallace cir
4 h la6 av11 -s>~er A~1-. = r
injured.
The coroner was ready to begin
hearing witnesses today and the In.
diana public service commission an
nounced that an inquiry to fix the
blame for the disaster would be
opened Thursday next. 1t is said thai
the Interstate commerce commission
also may join in the investigation
Aionzo Sargent. engineer of the empty
troop train which crashed into the
rear end of the circus train, and his
fireman, Gustave KLAUS, who left the
scene Immediately after the collision
and went to their homes in Kalama.
zoo, Mich, and Michigan City, Ind.
emit at the inquest and tell their version
I7Of the accident
Sixty-two bodies have been recov.
cred from the wreck and accordine
to E. M. Ballard. general manager OF
the circus. twenty-three of the EN-.
ployes are still missing and are SUP
posed to have been destroyed by the
lire which consumed the wooden cir.
Gus cars.
Thirty-Six of Injured Out.
Gary, Ind, June 24.-Thirty-six o.
the injured in the circus wreck neal
! here Saturday were able to leave thu
hospitals today. Thirty-six remain il
the hospitals.
Engineer Released.
Kalamazoo, Mich, June 24-Alonzt
j. Sargent, engineer of the train O
empty Pullmans which crashed int,
the Wallace circus trail
near Gary, Ind, Saturday, was re
: leased from custody this forenoon.
: McAdoo Into 1t.
| Washington. June 24.-Directo