OCR Text |
Show ANOTHER TERRIBLE DISASTER. DIS-ASTER. Dixon, Illinois, reports the latent wholesale slaughter of human beings, an iron trestle bridge over tho Kock river haviDg given way under the weight of a vast crowd gathered to witness baptism ceromoniep. Some two hundred persons of the multitude upon tho bridge were at once precipitated precipi-tated twenty feet into the river, many falling beneath the heavy iron spans and being literally crushed between them and the rooky bod of the swift river. Up to 6 o'olook last evening forty-one bodies had been recovered, and it was supposed that from fifteen to twenty more persons had been killed. The terrible 6ceno is faintly pictured in our telegraphic report of ths morning. morn-ing. The Kock river is very wide at Dixon, the bridge being over fifteen lundred feet long, an i the great war-Tel war-Tel is that so few persons lost their lives. Evidently the peculiar manner in which tho spans that fell braced against the next, alone prevented a far more appalling result than the one reported. re-ported. Half a dozen years ago, Elgin, Ilia, but a short distance from Dixon, was the scene of a similar ac-cideut, ac-cideut, a bridge, of tho tamo pattern, over tbc Fox river, giving waf when crowded with p'ople also assembled as-sembled to witoesa the rile of baptism. There certainly must have been incompetency in-competency or lack of proper precaution precau-tion in the persons whoso business it was to superintend this Dixon bridge. It eccms that either thorough aud frequent fre-quent examination ituo the condition of the structure must have been neglected, ne-glected, or clr-c that tho estimated capacity ca-pacity of the bridgo was thoughtlessly allowed to bo greatly exceeded. An examination into tbo case should be demanded, and it should be o thorough thor-ough aa to bring forth the tacts. |