Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-12-05
Is to 20 Are Dead
in Reading Wreck
Continued from Page Ono

classes Ncwt"wn people who had been
IN Philadelphia for n brief Sunday
visit als, were going horne There
were rIany women and children on the
train from the Terminal.
In the fine sunshine, gliding yes
t"rday's snow that lay on the fields
md hills, the trains drew near, neither
engineer aware of the danger ahead.
The trains, whiStling. came round n
curve. Tho prolonged blasts were the
first note Of alarm heard by the pNsscn-
gers. They had all travelled over the
line many times before, and knew that
a whistle from ahcad meant n train
coming on the same track. Women
screamed and tried TO leap from their
seats. those with children Grasping
them to their breasts. Some tried to
make for tn" doors, bur they were too
late To jump. In an instant the two
engines had met and locked, rising on
their rear trucks like giunt horses fight
ing
Then the engine of the train from
Philadelphia toppled back. Ovcrborne
10y the greater speed and weight Of the
express, with its six cars behind il,
and settled half on its back, half on Its
side, on top of the forward coach and
against the rock wall
The other engine. ploughlng through
the wrcckagc, first raised the forward
coach. then dashed it under the debris.
The cries of the women and children,
tn, means and shouts of the men, were
drowned in the noise Of spIint"ring wood
and Kissing steam.
Goals from the fireboxes of the en .
gincs completed the work Of horror and
destruction. The forward cars of both
trains caught fire. Those who We're in
these coaches We're trapped. The men
and women in the train from NcwtOwn
were the more fortunate, for they were
merely cut and bruised and crushed.
ThcS" who could walk dragged or car
ried tn, Sc who could not. In the after
coaches most escaped injury, ana the
passengers and crews ran to the aid Of
the stricken in the first car.
Caught Standing in Aisles
\ more terrible fate had ovcrtaken
the passengers in the first coach of the
train from Philalclphin, because on
ln,m fell the full weight Of the w"
engines. But worse far was thC fire.
Il cam" scething from the roof and from
the floor. bursting out almost spon-
rancor,ly from ali parts of the car at
once. The car was packed, some of the
INNN''llS'lS NluHHlllB III t''' eS'"'r'
Broken seats and splintered wood
work walled in the crushed and helpless
victims. Few could have fed even had
they been unInjured. The flames spread
50 swiftly that the survivors could dc
little for the unfortunatcS IN this burn
ing rNr.
They tried heroiCally. Several went
M tLc fire time and again until they
al .
ucllod 70 stop. EqOrts were made tc
cxtingui,h the fire, but there was no
equipment at hand.
TnlcphOnc messages were sent for IRE
conpanirs, but while they were rushing
10 the scene the flames were slowly
roasting the victims in the car TO death.
Physician Tells of Wreck
DR.. James Grove, of Huntingdon
Valley. was one of the first physicians
at the scene. He told graphic story of
horror, witnessed by him in the hrSt
hour after the wreck He treated many
nergons hurt in the wreck and saw one
body. =, ,
1.-THE only body l saw said Dr..
Grove ''was that Of one of the train
crew. | think Il fireman. The body lay
along the bank of the Pennypack Creek,
I examined it. The man had been dead
for about nm hour when saw him:
Death had resulted from fractured
skull.
II was called on the telephone al
about : o'clock. Ny home is two mile.
owoy from the scene Of the wreck.
drove over with my chauffeur He saw
numerous bodies in the burned wreck =
age was too busy attending the in
hIred to stop to look at the dead My
man told me he had seen backened bod :
les, charrcd all over. They had been
cooked alive in the old wooden coaches
''The first coaches on both trains took
fire when the engines met head and
reared up, falling back on the coaches
Bodies still In Wreckase
Il am told that between twelve and
twenty persons were burned TO death,
and their bodies are still in the wreck
NE The line IL tied up. 1t cannot pos
sibly be- cleared to-day.
II understand one of those killed was
a ten year old boy, Jack krewson, of
NewtOwn. lie was with his mother.
They tell me he was lively little fel'
low, and having good time on the
train until the crash. He was buried
in the burning wreckage of the woodeg