“When the people of Metz, early in the afternoon of October 15, realized that the village was in danger, they telegraphed to the railroad company for a relief train to carry the women and children to safety. At 2:30 P. M. an engine arrived with a steel gondola car—a steel box with solid walls about four feet high and without roof. The danger did not appear immediate when the train arrived and the people delayed to gather up their more valuable portable property and load it into the car. The trainmen urged haste, but the people were determined, and hours passed. At 5:30 P. M. the train started with about forty-five women and children huddled in the open car. Four trainmen were on board and a farmer and his wife, who were trying to reach home where their children had been left earlier in the day. Two miles from Metz a line of box cars stood on a siding close to the main track. On the opposite side of the track was a huge pile of cross ties awaiting shipment. Both box cars and cross ties were burning. The heat had warped the rails of the main track, but the dense blanket of smoke prevented the engineer from seeing what had happened. The train dashed into the furnace between the burning cars and the burning cross ties and was wrecked. Seventeen of those on board were burned to death. The fireman and brakeman and the farmer were among the killed. The rest were women and children. Those who escaped clambered over the sides of the car and crawled along the ground to an open place where they lay on their faces several hours until the fire had subsided. The wreck occurred within fifty feet of the home of the farmer. The farmer’s wife escaped from the train and reached the burning house. She rushed in, in search of her children, and her bones were found later among the ashes. The three children, the oldest nine, had fled to a neighbor’s house near by and were saved. Many who escaped from the train were terribly burned. [Illustration: REFUGEES AT POSEN.] “The men of Metz, who remained to fight the fire, escaped without loss of life. One of these men told me of his escape. He threw some small valuables into a large wooden candy pail and started to run along the road through the woods. Presently his hair began to burn and his face to blister. He felt himself failing. He emptied the contents from the pail and put it over his head. With this protection he managed to crawl along the road to a field and escaped, with clothing on fire and many injuries.