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Show t WW UN TO DEATH AND mY ME INJURED IN n m rour collision Engineer fails to See Signal Through fog and flyer Crashes Into In-to freight Train; Car Telescoped; Only five Passengers Escape. THE KNOWN DEAD: MINOR GRIFFITH, FIREMAN ON FREIGHT. P. J. HIGGINGER. CONDUCTOR ON PASSENGER TRAIN. J. M. MAGEE, BAGGAGE MAN. HENRY OUTGALT, CINCINNATI, FIREMAN ON PASSENGER. KANKAKEE. III.. .Ian. 1! Twon'v-persons Twon'v-persons are believed to have been killed or burned fo death in the wrerk nf passenger pas-senger train No. s eatbouid. a Fowler. Fow-ler. Ind.. at 2 o'clnok thi nio'ninp. The wreek oceurred on the ''Big Four"' road, the passenger train whieh left f'hifHgn at 11 : 3 p. m . last night running into n freight train The raus of the eolHsom is sai.1 to be that the engineer on the passenger train failed to see the block signal Fire follower! the e.dliion adding hor ror to the wreek and it is brkevel tiiat more passr nge: were l.u'n'd to death than were killed hv f' e miiisiDn. There were twenty fie persons in fle enrn binaton da ooa,h and bagcage ear and only five nf them 'soaped alive. LAFAYETTE, IND. JAN. 19 REPORTS RECEIVED HERE INDI CATE THAT TWENTY FIVE PEE SONS WERE KILLED IN A WRECK OF "BIG FQUE" PASSENGER TRAIN NO. S8.V NEAR FOWLER, EARLY TODAY. BODIES OF TWENTY OF THE VICTIMS WERE CREMATED. THOSE KILLED, IT IS STATED. WERE NEARLY ALL IN THE COMBINATION CAE. WHICH TOOK FIRE AND BURNED. THE SLEEPERS TURNED OVER. OWING TO THE DENSE FOG THE ENGINEER OF THE "BIG FOUR" FLYER WAS UNAELE TO SEE THE LIGHT OF THE SEMAPHORE. WHICH DIRECTED HIM TO STOP. AS A WESTBOUND FREIGHT HAD THE RIGHT OF WAY. THE TRAIN DISPATCHER. KNOWING THAT THE FOG WOULD PREVENT THE TRAINMEN FROM SEEING THE BLOCK SIGNAL, WENT OUTSIDE AND WAVED HIS LANTERN FRANTICALLY, AND FIRED AT LEAST HALF A DOZEN SHOTS FROM HIS REVOLVER. BUT THE TRAIN WENT CRASHING BY, AND A MOMENT LATER THE CRASH CAME. The lendr-r of o e s f.ese..ped rhe h.'iggag '-ar. .and the rear nd of tender cut through . within te; f. of the r-.ar of the smoker. The fire n:en "f b"th trains were kilkd :n s'antlv. but the ei;gni ers fs.-aprd hv ; limping. The repor' of the ,'..l!is;or: w: !:ea-. a'! ..r tow:. Fire !!! and wht.!e called the pe,.pl.. i.i :r.e aid of The m oir.d Flir:e: Prevent Rescue. I 'i.e.; i 1 1 ely following n- or.asn t'm wri'kage caught fire, and the bo, lies were hurled before th.ev c,,;;ld he ex tricatfd from the rums. The hea' of the burning cars was o lr.'ir.se that the Wc.uld he reci ' .nhl T"t g" near enro;gh f help One man. who was pleading piteouslv f.r aid. was pmnod under ,a car seat He was res. ue,; -vion the tlatnes were w ithin six f t of him. Another man wa thrown out of the window of the smoker i r t a ditch These were the or.lv tw passengers rescued fr"in the sn nk'T. Only Skeletons Found. The killed included pen. women and children All that could he ocn at da v break this morning was tlie smou! dering skeletons of human bodies and the wreckage ,,f the smoker and hag gage car None ,.f t r - jassengers in the sleeper was killed (' ri'ner ' inley lias taken charge, and Prosecuting Attorncv Hall will as Hist the , r-der's jurv in making (in investigation of the w re, k The sleep ing cars were not .1$; roved hy fire. ( HICAiihi. .Ian 1 V- -Passenger train No. east bound, on the "Big Four" railroad, coiided head on witii west railroad, collide.! head on with west Ind.. a small town twontv eight miles west nf Lafayette, at L' o'clock tin morning, killing and injuring a number of person, variously tirr.nted .at from twelve to twentv fiv. None Hurt in Sleepers. The passenger train, which left ( hi cago at lli.T'i o'clock last night, was known as the "t'ueen 'it Special," and consisted of a combination hag gage and dav coach, three sleeping cars and the private car of r. E. Sehaaf. viee president of the road. The train was running at th' rate of fifty miles an hour when the ai'ri-dert ai'ri-dert occurred, and the force of the (Continued on page 2.) TWENTY BURN. ("Continued from page 1.) collision was so great that the tender of the passenger engine was driven the entire length of the combination, car, in which were a number of pas sengers, estimated at from fifteen to twenty five. All the dead and injured were taken from the wreckage of" this car, none of the passengers in the sleepers having been hurt. Coaches All Burn. Soon after the collision the wreckage wreck-age caught fire from the engine, and all the coaches except the private car of Vice President Schaaf were de stroyed. Paul P. Harris, an attorney of Chicago Chi-cago who was en route to Florida, was, so far as known, the only person to escape from the combination car. He reached Lafavette on another train, and reported that the dead and injured, as fast as they were taken from the wreckage, were placed in the first sleeper the Cincinnati sleeper. This car caught fire, and the victims were removed to the next car the In dtanapolis sleeper. The fire also spread to this car, and it became necessary again to transfer the desd and injured, this time to Vice President Schaaf 's private car, in which rhev were taken to division headquarters at Kankakee, 111. One Burned to Death. One cf the passengers ' was pinred under some of the wreckage and burned to death The engineer of the pssenger train was seriously injured, but will survive The fireman of one of the engines was crushed to death. His bo.lv was re covered. According to Harris, both trains had orders to stop at Fowler, but the pas senger train ran bv the block signal, which the engineer failed to nee ow ing to the fog. Vice President Schaaf was not on the train, but his wife occupied the pri vate car. Mrs. Schaaf was not in i .lured. Dies Going to Hospital. General Superintendent Houghton said his information at 1 '1 o'clock this morning was that between ten and fif teen persons were killed while the list of seriously injured was not large. He said : 'The Indianapolis sleeper was th last car of the train. No person on it waa hurt. Five injured were taken to the hospital at Kankakee. One of them died on the way. "The survivors were put aboard the next train for Indianapolis. It was ne j eessary to send this train back to Schaaf 's car and over the Lake Krie Western and Chicago & Kastern Illinois to get back on the main line for Indianapolis. Indian-apolis. Some of the passengers wished to go back to Chicago and were -ent there. We sent H wreck train from here at .1 o'clock, but the train from Kankekee was there ahead of it."' |