Show T adventurers CLUB kead HEADLINES LINES FROM THE LIVES 0 OF F P PEOPLE 0 PL E LIKE YO YOURSELF panic in the park dark A ELLO EVERYBODY A A ha heres re s t the hh e story of a cockeyed cock eyed Fail railroad road accident so cockeyed cock eyed that everything seems to work just the opposite from what it should you know when anyone mentions railroad accident to me 1 I 1 immediately think of a collision but Mi marcella arcell timer of cliftonia Clif J was in one once that enot not only a collision but as a matter of fact was just the opposite of a collision ithac 1 t sounds pretty doggone near impossible and I 1 know 4 1 it two railroad cars coming to together 9 ether dancause can cause am a mighty serious a accident c ci dentOn on the other hand two cars getting barth farther and farther apart every minute well that ought to be just about the safest thing on tracks butia but it was the ever widen ing distance between two cars that threw mrs timer right into chelap the lap of adventure and cause caused daU all the horror and panic and suffering that youre going to I 1 read about today marcellas ausba husband adis Is a traveling representative for a new york firm in the summer of 1925 he was covering the new england territory the timers home was then in park N J but marcella with her two children a boy six and a baby girl not quite a year old wai waa touring new england with her husband it was about the middle midd leof of july and they were in hartford conn when the baby developed a colle colic and began running a high feyer fever mar facella deil decided ded to taki take the children home to ridgefield park they arrived in new borkon york on a terrifically hot day crossed to new jersey and gotan got on a west shore train at weehawken Wee hawken about tour four thirty in the afternoon train comes to stop in tunnel 1 I dont kno know whether youre no acquainted quain ted with the west shore railroad at this point marcella writes but it his has a long tunnel no under er the he city of weehawken Wee hawken which comes out on the jersey meadows about seven ren miles from where it begins I 1 had often i passengers began to show signs of uneasiness been ahr through on gh this tunnel and had never given it a second thought 90 but many are the thoughts marcella has hak given that doggone tunnel since she boarded the he train for park and found seats in the next to the last coach the train star started tid and entered the tunnel as usual it was about halt half way through when it began to stow slow down and came to a gradual stop that unusual trains often did that marcella paid no attention to it and neither did any oU of theother the other passengers after a while the lights went out that WAS unusual the passengers began vi to get restless A conductor was running up and down outside the coa coaches ches swinging a red lantern A second conductor had stationed hini himself self at the door the day had been hot enough in the first place but down there in the tun tunnel helIt it was stifling the windows of the cars were wera a all 11 closed to ke keep ep out the poisonous gases that filled the tunnel at all times and what littlefair litt attle leair air there was in the beginning was rapidly being used up the aa baby lik whose fever had mounted began to scream at the top ot of her lungs several other passengers began to show signs of uneasiness some of the I 1 men got up and approached the door but the conductor would anotle not let t them pass nor would hi he give any any satisfactory explanation why thi the ti train in was standing still in aa dark and gas ridden tunnel fo for a few minutes after that all was quiet then suddenly panic 9 gripped the people in that dark stifling car one man 1 sped to a window and threw it ipen open they cant keep us in here to suffocate like rats rati 11 he hi shouted im getting aull he clambered through the window and man many others followed urn him and aim almost 0 st Ini immediately mediately the coach was filled with the he sulphurous poisonous jase gases of the tunnel then the n says marcells marcella terror such as I 1 had bad never known before gripped me my baby stopped screaming suddenly and became my little boy leanea with unnatural weight against my side in the he pitch I 1 darkness everyone was gasping for bire breath ath some man shouted to ever everyone yoneto to lie he down on the floor I 1 get down with the tw two 0 chil children drin but 1 I prayed and how I 1 prayed coal gas fills passenger coaches women were binting dinting din ting and min mens lungs were arac cracked wracked I 1 ked with a hacking cough that only filled them with more co coal algis gas I 1 felt as if a hand ot of steel were gripping aminy at my throat then I 1 begin began to sink down into a dark black pit of nothingness that seemed to be coming alito up to meet me I 1 tried to fight it off but it seemed it was no use deeper and deeper into athi the gloom biank I 1 sank subconsciously I 1 felt the train jarand shake but by that time it mein mean anything it is the last thing I 1 kemem be bared red then I 1 was unconscious now lets goback and tell the part of the story marcella know bow anything about what i had happened was that a coupling hid had broken and thi the front p part art of the train had gone on on leaving the last wo coaches ches behind in the middle of the tunnel it was the exact opposite of a collision but the conductors rea realized itzea that it was serious nevertheless one efthem of them went on out t into the gas filled tunnel witha with a red lantern to make sure thattie that the be cars hit bit by an another other train while the he other tried to keep the passe passengers ork from leaving the kite comparative comp tive safety of the car when th the front froni of the broken train reached the meadows the loss of the two ears cars was discovered and an an emergency engine was sent immediately dia tely but it had bad taken 20 minu minutes testo to accomplish that tha tand and in the meantime the passengers in id those two stranded cars had bad breathed in a lot of coal gas ambulances am bul ances were waiting when they reached the mouth of the tunnel to give first aid and maybe bod you think we we need it says says marcella IM my little boy andl and 1 wire were revived almost immediate immediately ly but bat it was only w with ith a terrific struggle that my little girls life was saved andia and U marcelli marcella had to go through another railroad accident I 1 think shed pick a good old fashioned coll collision islon in preference to oneff one of those trick accidents where the cars all ga go in different directions copyright service |