DEATH ON THE RAIL.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume V, Issue 650, 22 August 1891, Page 3

DEATH ON THE RAIL.

HORRIBLE ACCIDENT ON THE ERIE BAILROAD. TWENTY-ONE PEOPLE KILLED IN OHIO. Ravenna (Ohio), July 3.—Twenty-one people were killed and many injured at an early hour this morning in the most frightful railroad accident of the present year. At 3 piolock the east-bound express on the Erie Road was lying at the station while some repairs were being made by the engineer. Flagman Boynton had started back with a lamp to ward off any possible danger from the rear. Suddenly, without warning, the headlight of a locomotive flashed around a curve and a fast stock train dashed down a Steep grade from the west, crashing into' the rear el the passenger train standing quietly at the depot. The passenger train was about ten minutes late, owing to trouble with one of the cars. The train at the time of the accident lay on the main track just at the bottom of a steep grade, and though the trainrpen knew that they were followed by the fast freight no one Seemed to think the freight was at their very heels, and once on the down grade coming Into the station It was a hard matter to stop, especially as the freight did not intend to make Ravenna a stopping place. The freight was making time and came down the hill with a rush, the engine and tender being fairly hurled through the rear cars of the passenger train. PITEOUS CRIES FOR HELP arose from the heap of wreckage, and willing hands were already tearing at the heap of broken and twisted timber and iron, Suddenly here and there tiny tongues of flame Sprang up from the crevices ot the wrecked train, Fire was added to the horrors of the wreck, and, fight as they would, the rescuers could not drive the ugly element back one foot from the victims, who shrieked and implored in vain for help that was willing enough, was far too weak to tear aside Iron and timbers before wreck and flames had done their worst,

BAILBOAD.

There was no delay in rendering assistance, but all efforts were fruitless until the arrival of the city Fire Department. The flames Could not be stayed until water had been poured into the wreck for hours. It seamed to agonise the onlookers, but in reality all that human power could do was done. At daylight a subdued and tearful crowd of several hundred stood at the station gazing on the sickening sight, while all about them was the smothering odour of burning flesh arising from the mass of black, heaped-up Wreckage, Now and then the eye chanced Upon little shreds of clothing or charred flesh and bones, each and all blackened and

ROASTED TO A HORRIBLE DEGREE Possibly tbs most fearful eight, if one could be wojae than another, was the appearance of 019 bojler of the freight engine In the first gnock the front end of the boilss was broken tn, and as ths engine ploughed its way through the mass of humanity four poor fallows were actually scooped up in the Cauldron, wounded and helpless, and there lay slowly roasting to death before ths eyes of the spectators, who wou’d, but could not, aid tfle®, These were afterwards taken out pieesmsal by firemen's hooks and covered with sheeting.

Aid for the wounded was soon at hand, but for the dead there was nothing but to hide them from sight as soon as nostible. The .Etna building was transformed into a morgue, and as the masses of burned flesh were taken out they were hastily removed there and either stretched at full length or huddled in little heaps, uorqner bberman with assistants stepped from one to'another searching for a letter or some means ot identifying one mass from another. Thia was difficult. In halt a dozen Instances the entire head had been burned off, leaving only the blackened trunk, grim and ghastly, defying alljefforts at identification.

The names and other data could only be secured from surviving friends. No one could tell one trunk from another. Among all the beheaded bodies but two had retained ANYTHING RESEMBLIMG HUMAN FEATURES.

It was hero in the morgue that the most touching discovery of the night was made. The Coroner tenderly removed from one form a clotted sheet, to find beneath it the unmistakeable form of a woman, and worst of all, clasped in her arms, as if to shield its young limbs from the flames that had evidently consumed both, was an infant child. She had shielded the babe until the last, and even in death her blackened arms were unwilling to be separated from their charge.

One poor woman was pinioned in tbe wreck, though apparently but slightly hurt, whose appeals for help will never be forgotten by the spectators. The flames had not reached her, but were slowly eating their way towards her. Strong and willing hands swung axes as they were never swung before. It was a battle between life and death. As the heat became more intense the men who no longer were able to withstand the flames ?ave place to others with the rapidity of lightning, but it was a useless fight. The choppers had to fall back and abandon the woman to her fate. In a moment the flumes caught her drees and instantly leaped to her head. Her piteous cries of “ Save me 1 save me 1" as the flames enveloped her form, and the expression of agony on her face as she sank down in the debris, caused the strongest hearts to grow sick with horror. How many more such frightful tragedies, though unseen, were enacted within the burning ruins in those brief moments, will never be known.

Of the forty glassblowers, who occupied the rear coach, seventeen were killed. All the others were more or less injured, two fatally. George Helman, engineer of the freight train, in an interview, said he could not see how he eould be blamed. He further said : I could have stopped the train, but the rails were wet and the sand would hot take. I was not warned in time, and I could not see tbe lights on tbe tear passenger oar owing to darkness and fog. I reversed the lever as quickly as possible, and the fireman jumped from the train, sustaining a severe fracture of the right hand."