The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 18, 1901, Page 1

VOLTME LX XIX—NO. 80. SAN FRANCISCO, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1901. PRICE FIVE CENTS. SASTER TO THE CENTRAL PACIFIC'S EAST-BOUND FLYER COSTS SIX LIVES I————— water T Dur- fre- the immense 1 to melt reather i in torrent only s arriv but the d iron, stand- erhead of the trucks of the tender, to- safely t the boi ose of the matl car and re in the torrent below. | went to the left, the rear g clear of the head end of the was telescoped by the buffet. MRS ADOLPH BISSINGER — SCENE OF THE WRECK OF THE CENTRAL PACIFIC FLYER AT MILL CITY, AS REPRODUCED FROM A TELEGRAPHIC DESCRIPTION, AND SIX OF THE KILLED/AND INJURED. engine. The composite car lles across the gap of seventy-five feet and telescopes the head Pullman for nearly thirty feet. Engineer Abbay € settling and started to get o but he had hardly engine through the window, m ed from his seat How he got out he doesn't ¥now. Markle, Brakeman came ( rductor Reeves posite Brakeman Reeves jumped m a window, landing in the creek be- low, which was at that time about four feet deep. Fat> of the Bissingers. Mr. Schic San Francisco, occupled a drawing-room with his wife and daughter, Elsie, at the head end of the first sleeper. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bissinger ere killed, ys that he felt the | before the grash | the train barber were in the com-; Bissinger of the firm of Bissinger hide and tallow merchants of | This cer while their daughter, occupying the berth above | them, was but slightly injured. Mr. Bis- | singer and family were en route to New York. As soon as Miss Blssinger recov- ered from the shock she was astir, and | searching parties found her, together with Conductor Markle, and helped them out through a small opening in the roof of the car. Clinton R. Coulter had evidently killed outright. When found he. was doubled up, with a large hole in one side of the head, back of the car. The de- ceased had a ticket to Chicago and re- turn. Fireman Whitaker met death at his post of duty, probably never knowing what had happened. His body is pinned under the gebris of fron and can be plainly seen; vet it is in such a mass of wreckage that up to 8 o’clock to-night he could not be got out. The body was terribly scalded. Two bodies, evidently those of tramps, are In the mass of twisted iron. One lies near that of the fireman, the left hand protruding far enough to be visible, while the other is in the creek, pinioned under one of the car trucks. been "”r\\‘\ How Mall Clerks Scuyler and Cavin es- caped with their lives is an enigma to those who saw the position of the wreck- age, yet their injuries are very slight. No. 4, the eastbound express, was fol- lowing the overland limited closely. The rear brakeman on No. 2 had but a few minutes’ time to flag it to prevent a rear- end collision. Collision Barely Averted. At 7:20 a. m. a special left this place with what wrecking outfit was available, together with all the doctors and nurses procurable. Not long afterward a special was dispatched from Wadsworth with a gang of machinists, a wrecking crew and surgeons. More surgeons were taken aboard at Lovelock, but their services were not needed at the time the train ar- rived at the scene of the wreck, the Winnemucca physiclans having ' taken care of the injured. Torrents of water are rushing down the steep ravine through the great gap'occa- sioned by the backing up of the water, and as darkness sets in to-night the water has attained a greater height than at any time since the washout. Orders were tel- egraphed to Sacramento to start the pile- driver from that place. Two and possibly three days will elapse before the track is repaired. Five engines are endcavoring to clear the right of way and about 150 la- borers are bullding a track of some na- ture with a skeleton structure to annlv the paesing of trains. All day was con- sumed with hardly any appreciable re- sults. No passengers have been trans- ferred from the West, they remaining in their respective cars at Mill City. At 1:50 p. m. a special. consisting of an engine, a fourist car and a caboose, left Mill City for Wadsworth, with all of the dead and injured except Conductor Markle and Brakeman Reeves, they re- questing that they be taken to- their homes at Ogden. Upon arrival at Wads- worth a special was sent to. Sacramento, conveying the dead and injured whose homes are in California. Telegrams were sent to an uncle of Miss Bissinger at the Hotel Richelieu. in San Francisco, notifying him of the deaths of his relatives and requesting him to mcet | been formed. This was till spanned by his niece. Mra. Coulter, the widow of | the track, held up by the rails. Strange Clinton R. Coulter, was telegraphed to at | to say, it was a place where no water Millwood. Cal., informing her of the sad death of her hirsband. ACCOUNT GIVEN BY A PASSENGER Disaster Comes Without Warning and Brings Instant Death to the Six Unfortunate Vic- fi tims. BLUE CANYON, Feb. 17.—From a pas- eenger of No. 2, the fiver wrecked in Ne- vada, who passed through here to-night on the special train conveying the In- jured to San Francisco. the following story of the wreck was obtained: “The wreck occurred at 5:15 in the morning. Passenger train No. 2, better known as the Flyer. was speeding along. having 1ost several hours by a washout west of Mill City. Two miles east of Mill City the track runs near the foot of some hills sloping from the south. The heavy rain of Saturday had sent the water down to the depth of ten or twelve feet on the upper side of the track. in a depression in the ground. A culvert under the track evidently had been clogged and the water ran over the track | and eroded the sandy soil until a cut sixty feet wide and thirty feet deep had ‘N oy g 1) MiSS & BISSIN T Prond VICTIMS OF NEVADA : RAILWAY DISASTER Pl i % THE DEAD. [ ADOLEH BISSINGER, aged 40 years, of ‘Bissinter & Schloss, San Francisco. MRS. ADOLPH BISSINGER, aged 30 years, of San Francisco. C. L. WHITAKER, fireman, aged 23 years, of Wadsworth, Nev. CLINTON R. COULTER, aged about 35 years, of San Francisco. Two tramps, names unknown. . THE INJURED. Miss Elsie Bissinger, 16 years of age, daughter of Mr. and Mra. Adolph Dissinger, slightly bruised. Conductor H. E. Markle of Ozden. scalp wonnds and fa. body bruises. RBrakeman J. J. Reeves of Ogden. slight body brulses. Engincer Georze Abbay of Wadsworth, head and face scalded, shoulder wrenched and left foot injured. Mail Clerk Schuyler of San Francisco, right leg broken and eut about the head. Mail Clerk Cavin of San Francisco, bruised about the body and cut .2 the Neau. - — was ever known'to accumulate before | the yawning chasm on the frail bridge of and there was no stream there. The |ralls, and hung from the opposite bank. sandy soil was slightly frozen on top and | The momentum of the train carried the all the water ran off instead of being ab- | mail car across beyond the engine. The sorbed as usual, this causing the great | composite car, which came next, formed accumulation. | a bridge across the cut, its ends touehing “The train was running at high speed both sides, the sleeper next to it teleseop- when the place was reached. No danger | Ing the rear end. The end of the sleeper was suspected. The engine passed across | was crushed in, and here Bissinger and