“The first intimation he had of the affair was the sound of the
crash of the bridge. Then he felt and realized the sensation of
the downward tendency of the coach. He clutched one of the seats
to steady himself. All of a sudden, in the flash of a second, the
passengers were thrown to the end of the coach which had reached
the water. The broken pieces of ice, the snow, and fragments of
the car came in with a rush. He caught the stove, which had not
yet been cooled from its heat, thinking to save himself thereby
from drowning. In doing so he burned his hand to a blister, while
the other portion of his body was freezing in the water. He
remembered the crashing of the smoker upon his car. As soon as he
could collect his thoughts he went to work to extricate himself,
but how he did it was unable to state. He only knew he was out
of the car and into the fragments of ice and floating pieces of
the wreck. From there he managed to reach unbroken ice and from
thence he climbed up the height and was the first of that scarred
and bruised number to reach the top. In doing this it is to be
remembered that the poor man had a piece of gilt molding, one inch
wide, three-quarters of an inch thick, and eight inches long, in
a portion of his body. It had entered the left shoulder, back of
the collar-bone, and penetrated under the shoulder-blade into the
side. He scarcely realized his situation until he had been conveyed
to the nearest place of comfort. In his car were from 40 to 45
passengers; in the smoking-car he thinks about the same number. In
his opinion there were not less than 200 passengers in all. He says
when he got out of the car on the ice the screams of the dying and
crushed broke upon his ears, and were the most pitiful sounds that
were ever heard. He said that all occurred in such a remarkably
brief space that he cannot now realize how it was that so much of
human misery could be crowded into a speck of time.”
The experience of those in the smoking-car was quite remarkable.
Several who escaped from this, have told of the fall. There were but
four killed in it. Among them was Harry Wagner, conductor of the
sleeping cars, who, it is said, was driven against, and even through,
the end of the car, by the stove, which swept through the whole length
with terrible force.
The conductor, Mr. Henn, speaks of this and says that the stove shot
past him on one side and something else fell with a crash on the
other side, but he escaped. Mr. J. M. Earle’s experience was quite
remarkable. He gives expression to the feelings which many had in
almost tragic words. He says:
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