FEARFUL RAILWAY DISASTER IN AMERICA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1569, 16 April 1887, Page 3

FEARFUL RAILWAY DISASTER IN AMERICA.

(From the Pall Mall Budget, February 11th.) '■ Montreal it rapidly filling with visitor* from the United States for the carnival, and the Governor-General it expected to-morrow. The ioe palaoe and the other attractions aro in good condition." So says a telegram which was despatohed from Montreal on Sunday. But the ioe oamiral of 1887 will be loag remembered ai the occasion of a railway acoidenfc, " the worst ever recorded in Northern New England." It was to this gay carnival that a number of Amerioans were proceeding on Saturday morning when many of them met with a death the horrors of which oan soaroely be exaggerated. The New York correspondent of the Standard tells the story thus : A disaster unprecedented in painfuiness and horror occurred in Vermont early on Sunday morning. With over 50deg. of frost prevailing, a portion of a train fell over a bridge upon th* ioe of a river, and, the carriages oatohing fire, the imprisoned passengers were burned to death. It is feared that over 60 lives have been lost.

The train was an excursion express thai hft Boston late on Friday night for Mon t real, carrying a large number of exoursionisU bound for the famous ioe oarnival on the l-t. Lawrenot). There is reason to believe that the low rates adverted had on this cocasion attraoted about 125 passengers, but until the tiokefca have been examined the preoiee number oannot be ascertained. The Central Vermont Railway orospos the ! White River, whioh divides that state finm Few Hampshire, upon a wooden bridge 650 ft long. The engineer of the train had rawly oroised the bridge about two o'olook ci Sunday morning, when he realised something was wrong. Looking baokwards he saw the four hind cars topple over the side of the bridge, and fall a distance of 50ft upon the frosen river. Immediately tho stoves and broken lamps set fire to themurd can, and the debris was a mans of flame before any of the passengers could struggle out into an atmosphere of terrific oold.t The struggles of "the nnhappy victims were fearfully unnerving to those who had extrioated themselves. One man who had got out unhurt, returned to his wife, *hom he could touoh but not release, snd perhhed with her. Some were dragged out with their clothes in flames. Others tore off their garments in order to reduce themselves to a sise small enough to orawl through the apertures that afforded a chance of escape, and found themselves absolutely unprotected from the intense oold. . Two boys, college companions, con-1 versed together as they remained, pinned in immovable positions, awaiting the rapidly advancing fire. The fire oame and set one f i ee, the other was oonsumed. Few of the survivors have not some pitiful stories to tell of their escape, and of their tf rrifio struggles to rescue with their naked bands those who proved to be beyond human help. Their efforts were continued until the flames drove bsok the would.be delievers. Within half-an-hour all was over, the tragsdy was complete, and the only evidence of the indeaoribable horror of the last thirty minutes lay in the charred fragments, the •hapeless metal, and the glowing embers—all that remained of the bridge and oars, Tbe nearest houses were Ave miles away, and and before help arrived from them the oold had increased the number of deaths. About thirty passengers who were in the forward part of the train escaped unhurt. Of those in the rear cars seven suffered only slight injuries, and twenty-six were seriously injured, That gives a total of sixty-three who are believed to have escaped with their lives, and leaves a remainder of Bitty-two who suffered doath in this terrible oalamityi Remains have been oolleoted whioh are supposed to .epresent forty bodies, and the Bearoh was not then complete. Indentifloation will in many oases be impossible. For instanoe, one square if oh of tatooed skin is the sole evidence of the identity of one of the sufferers,

The cause of the accident it not yet ascertained with oertainty, but it it supposed that with the extreme frost a rail had broken, The can, driven off the metali, went bumping along until the hindmost oar dropped over the aide of the bridge end dragged after it the next three can, between whioh and the foremoit part of the train the coup-ling-iron broke, thus leaving the latter standing on the rails. No blame ii attached to any individual, but the newspapers are filled with proteiti against the dangerous method now universally adopted of beating railway oars. The oorreipondent of the Times in Philadelphia, telegraphing, says i—The disaiter caused the loss of fifty lives, The detailed report states that the usual night express, combining trains from New York and Boston, was formed at White River Junction for Montreal, oarrying numerous pas* isngers to the Winter Carnival at Montreal, at 2,10 a.m. on Saturday morning. The speed observed on approaohing the bridge over the White River, four miles to. the north, was being reduced to fifteen miles per hour, when a rail broke About 500 ft from the bridge, after several ooaohes had posted over the rail, and when the engine wus 100 ft from the bridge. The passengers say that an axle first broke under a sleeping :oaoh, whioh in turn broke the rail, the latter then throwing the train over. The falling coaohes lay on the ice, and the ttovet soon tet the wreok on fire and ignited fcho woodwork of the bridge, the whole burning with fury. The night was cojd and olear, a-nd the moon was shining. Forty enoapcd, but nearly #ll are injured, and the tales of fie disaster .fill the newspapers with horrors.

Another account, receivrd through Renter'* agenoy, says:—One oar, lying on the ioe, hai not yet been examined, and it it thought that there are at least twenty bodies in it. Should this surmise proye correct, the deaths by the disaster will amount to over 60, exclusive of the bodies whioh are believed to hare been oarried into the liver through the ioe. There is considerable difficulty in ascertaining the exact number of passengers, as the conductor, who was fatally injured, though still alive, had only just began to collect the tickets when the'disaster occurred, fifteen bodies of ladies have been recovered. The fire lasted half an hoar, and in several cases the unfortunate victims were firmly wedged in the wrecked earriagei, and calmly watohed the apprfaoh of the flames while bidding farewell to their friends, who were powerless to remove the debris,