Widnes Examiner. — 1887-08-06 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

ACCIDENT IN AMERICA. 200 PERSONS KILLED.  Another frightful railroad disaster was, on Thursday, added to the list of those which have gone before. A train of twelve coaches, loaded with excursionists, was that morning passing through Illinois. bound for the Niagara Falls. ear Chatsworth, a small town some hundred miles south of ,Chicago, the train had to cross a bridge, which spans the Vermillion River. This bridge was of wood, and the "stringers," or girders, consisting of long beams of timber, laid longitudinally beneath the metals, had apparently been weakened by recent prairie fires. However, from whatever cause, the bridge was unable to support the train, and as the crowded cars rolled over it. the beams gave way with an awful crash, hurling the unhappy excursionists amongst the wreck of the cars in a writhing heap below. The loss of life is terrible. Soon after noon seventy mangled corpses had been recovered. No fewer than 150 persons are injured, many of them having frightful fractures and contusion. A New York telegram, of Friday's date, says that the village of Chatsworth and Piper City, which are near the scene of the disaster, are compared to mortuaries by those who have visited the Spot. The railway stations, engine-houses, and public halls are filled with the dead, and the private houses all contain wounded persons. When the victims were removed from the wreck they were first laid in the adjacent cornfields. Many of the bodies were fearfully mangled, and in some cases quite unrecognisable. The streets are filled with anxious persons seeking for their friends. Many pathetic incidents in connection with the accident are recorded. It is narrated that one poor man, whose legs were broken insisted that his wife and child should be removed from the debris before any help was rendered to himself. It proved that his child was dead, and his wife expired afteirbeing placed in the cornfield. The unfortunate husband was shortly laid beside her body, and then drawing a revqlver he committed suicide. It is considered probable that the bridge was set on fire by a spark from a passing engine early in the night, the dryness of the season having made the woodwork mere tinder.  A"Pimes" second edition telegram,-dated Philadelphia, Friday, says that 110 bodies have been taken out of the wreck. The latest report states that fully 200 were killed. A son of the Rev. Mr. Snedecker, of Abington, 12 years of age, was found clinging to the corpse of his mother, with one of his legs and an arm broken, and suffering, in addition, the 'excruciating pain produced by the loss of an eye. He refused to take some brandy which was offered to him, asking in vain for water. The searchers came across several headless bodies, as well as bodiless heads, belonging, perhaps, to dear friends, or, at any rate to acquaintances It is painfulto relate that some of the residents of the vicinity plundered the corpses with wolfish avidity, but then others exerted themselves to the utmost to give aid and comfort to the sufferers. The schoolhouse, the church, and some of the private dwellings of the town of Chatsworth ' were used as hospitals, and everything which surgical skill and tender nursing could do to prevent further loss of life was done, not without considerable success. Some of the bodies are mangled beyond recognition, and in not a few cases several members of one family have perished. A telegram from the scene of the terrible accident says that the disaster surpasses in its appalling extent any railway accident recorded in the history of the country. Two engines were attached to the train, which consisted of six day and six sleeping carriages, together with three cars for luggage. There were 960 passengers—all excursionists. The train left Bloomington early on Wednesday night. The bridge through which the train fell was an ordinary wooden trestle structure, erected over a ditch 10ft. deep and 15ft. wide. On nearing the bridge the engine-driver discovered it was on fire, but was unable to stop the train. The first engine Crossed over safely, and thenthe bridge fell. Tne second engine and some of the carriages were wrecked, some telescoping the others. The sleeping carriages remained on the track, bat were in great danger owing to the wrecked portion of the train having caught fire from the burning bridge. There has been a prolonged drought in the prairie, and consequently water was unobtainable ; but the able-bodied survivors, with an ingenuity which did them credit, extinguished with dust the flames that enveloped the ruined train.