The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 31, 1903, Page 17

'MOQWW 030 —a b Pages ] 03) Pages 4 . 4 * t ] Call, VOLI.'ME XCIII—-NO. 182, SAN FRANCISCO. SUNDAY, MAY 31, ' 1903—FORTY-EIGHT PRICE FIVE CEVTS. PAGES, H UNZ)REDJ‘ PERISH IN FLAMES OR BY DROWNING IN PRAIRIE CITY ASSAILED BY FIRE AND FLOOD SCORES OF LIVES ARE ENDANGERED AND DEATH AVERTED BY A MIRACLE IN ACCIDENT ON TRACTION LINES Hits Crowded Car at a Terrific Speed. Fourteen Suffer Injury From the Accndent aight-street car is a marvel of By the r company car: brought to a hait before cr tracks. When the collisior steeley Hujght-street car w the - ana| | H. BRE 214 Van Ness ave- 2 bowling | | Mue, bruises on body. i « at a tre- | o D r 1er this was a vio- E BT 5 TR a of rules or the result of the electric | been bent in like the side of a card house, r becoming unmanageable-is a ques- | the floor ripped from the trucks and the which the traction company | seats within rolied up lke pasteboard | scrolls. was at 11:30 o'clock that the west- Both dummy and interior of the car und Haight-street car, No. 163, under | had been crowded with people. A second of Gr man Fred H, nductor O. Taylor, approached the ng at Fillmore street. According to Diehl stopped his car before cross- tracks and awaited the conduc- 1gnal to go ahead. At the sound of bell he caught the grip and the car 4 forward on to the tracks of the Diehl and ? of the Fillmore-street line, der charge of Motorman H. C. Keller i Conductor A. W. Latham, and carry- nly one passenger, had meanwhile | down the heavy incline from Oak 7z the cable car in his path, Keller reversed the current and to stop the car, but to no pur- At terrific speed the on-rushing car sck the Haight-street car squarely in the middie There was a rending crack, followed by the. crash of splintered glass and the shrieks of the penned-up passengers with- . The lefthand side of the cable car .;. | | | \ | ERSAN £ Marvelous Escape of Throng of People. The Injured Tell of Their Narrow Escapes. | i CONDUCTOR OF THE CABLE CAR AND SOME INJURED PABSENGERS. » WREC OF THE “KED | THOSE INJURED | IN ACCIDENT ; NEIL DECKER, 722 Minna | street, abdominal strain and | | comtusion of the hip. MRS. BRIDGET HUGHES, Gough street, cut on abdo- | men, contusion on thizgh and nervous shock. ! | €. L. MATHEWS, 3241 Sixteenth | street, right eye cut by xiass. 314 | W. V. SMITH, G nd Hotel, right ankle sprained. REINHART, = 1609 street, right wrist ". LESSER, 231 Third street, contusion on knees and lvll leg. | THOMAS WALSH, 3216 Seven- teenth eet, right eye cut. MISS LORETTA -BRADY, S04 Cole street, bruises and cuts. MRS. DR. ELIZABETH HAR- RIS. 710 Capp street, shock and bruise: MRS. ELLA KEATING, 636 Ivy avenue, bruises on face and arms. JOEN A. | BRIGHT, 108 Eighth | street, face cut. | LOUIS M. ISAACS, 626 Natoma street, left wrist sprained. | SPENCER EDWARDS, 231 | Third street, legs strained. after the crash prostrate forms were sprawling in the street many feet from the wreck, while from within the splint- ered shell came the groans of ‘anguish of those who had been pinned down by the wreckage. To these willing hands began immediately to render assistance. The Sun drug store, on the corner of Haight and Fillmore streets, was turned into a temporary receiving hospital. - Dr. E. F. Liebrich and Dr. T. P. Bodkin, the proprieters of the establishment, rendered first aid to the injured until the am- bulances from the Central Emergency Hospital could arrive on the scene. A score of people, who did not report their names, were treated for cuts from flying glass, bruides and sprains and made their way to their homes without usnl.sl- ance. Six of the sufferers were taken to the Certral Hospital. It was there discovered that Mrs. 7 g~E 7A " BR4 = = | |1 { T is little short of the miraculous that | out of the fifty or seventy-five people who crowded the Haight-street car not onc - suffered injuries which are | serious. Despite the jar, the splin-| tering of wood and flying of glass, the most =eriously woun: of the lot was not retained in the hospital over six hours. Those who were on the ill-fated H;\ight-l street car tell stories of remarkable es-| cape from injury. Mrs. Elizabeth Keat- ing of 636 Ivy avenue, who suffered only | a few cuts and bru was able to tell | of her escape shortly after the accident. ated on the inside of the car saw the other car come crashing down on us. 1 was not able to move, s0 frightened was I, but just sat there and watched the car come on. The inside of the car bulged in like paper when the crash came I kept my feet, but was violently thrown against the side of the car and cut by flying glass.” LESSER’S EXPERIENCE. G. F. Lesser of 231 Third street, had his left knee auite badly met with an exciting experience at th instant of collision. He was standing on | the step on the back part of the Halght- street car in company with Spencer Ed- wards, who s 4 Third street. “The Halgh! spped _at crossing of * last cvening. who | injured, the ," said Lesser ! bell was rung Just at that in- *“Then our and our car went on. stant I heard the bell of the Fillmore- street car and I saw that car rushing down on us very fast. The Haight-street car was full on the outside and all the seats on the inside were filled and 1 think that one or two men were standing up on the inside. “The steps and all the seats on the outside were taken. Before I could jump the Fillmore street car struck the one I was on. The crash was something fearful. The air was filled with splin- ters of wood and pieces of flying glass. The shock was something terrjfic. The side of the car was smashed in and the people inside and outside of' the car were thrown about. 7Those on the out- side were thrown on the pavement. Continued on i’ln 27, Column 3. Continued on Page 27, Column;.— 'Many Persons May Be Fa- | not improbable that the Injuries of some | will prove fatal. | injured, | teria. the track, but did not go down the bank. CARS 60 | RACING 10 RUIN, Forty Are Hurf in Terrible Wreck, | Overland Leaves {fe Track on the Cliffs. tally Injured Near || Santa Barbara. | SRR Special Dispatch to The Call. i —A terrible er train No. Rincon, twenty SANTA BARBAR wreck of Overland passer south, occurred near | miles south of this city, at 8 o'clock to-| | night and forty passengers and train em- | | ployes were severely injured. Latest re- ports from the scenc of the disaster state that no person was killed, although it Is Four gars plunged dpwn an cmbankment forty feet high.t = * Among the injured are: = MRS. NELSON JOHNSON, Fort Madi- son, lowa, bruiscd ‘and badly cut about| | he head. WILLTAM DUN N, 527 South Fremont avenue, Los Angeles, bruised and cut about hands, MRS. CHARLES H. DUNLAP, 138 North Hill street, Los Angeles, cut and bruised. PICKET VAVIE, waiter in the dining s | FRED JEFFERSON, waiter. | FRED THORNTON, waiter. | S. WILLIAMS, waiter. —— BYRD, cook in dining car MRS. APPER, San Francisco, generally bruis EDWARD B. GOGERTY, collar bone broke. MR. AND MRS. W. G. BRADLEY, backs bruised, nothing serious. Los Angeles, Those Yet .fllwe in * District Ablaze Is ES QOOLHARDY in the face of danger, refusing to leave their homes when threatene Fmrrnu(/i[ng floodwaters, hundreds of residents of North Topcka, Kansas, unexp found themselves cut off from escape. While hemmed in on all sides by currents fury no boat could swrvive, the beleaguercd residents were suddenly confronted by a danger more appalling. Fire broke out in the city, and soon extended fto all portions of the fl trict. Scores of residents perished in the flames, and scores of others, preferring a (/(.1 h terrible, leaped into the foaming zvaters. Latest estimates place the total number of fire and flood at 200. Hundreds are still beyond aid, and though they es: by burning or drowning they must cventually succumb to exposwure. All of North Topeka is doomed to destruction. hose 7(71, er. even North Topeka Are Doomed. Hemmed in by Torrents. | | i i | O. W. GRAY, Lawton, Okla., cut and bruised. J. E. CARR, Creston, Jowa, cut and bruise S W) oog MRS . E. CARR, Creston, Towa. o o //Yf MRS. ALIC STEBBINS, Ithaca, N. Y., 1 head, face, arms and hands cut and //{//f;, bruised. <= / MRS. FRED COLEGROVE, Loyalton, . Cal., shoulder wrenched. FRANK A. CHRISTMAS, San Fran- "lk R 3 3 3 “f“‘l‘- "‘“‘"’“:’f”'(“? ';‘“l’l“‘ oy e 0 L STATE EXECUTIVES OF JOWA AND KANSAS, WHO ARE DOING THEIR UTMOST FOR THE REL | Woolen merciaips, Tmuly brulsed, aine FLOOD SUFFERERS, AND A STREET SCENE IN TOPEKA, WHERE FIRF AND FLOOD HAVE C but not thought serious. MRS. J. M. CASEY, Fort Madison, Towa, cut and bruised about the head, | 4o —— - - feared internally injured. ROBERT SEBERT CASEY, and cut. FIVE-YEAR-OLD SON of Mrs. slightly cut. NELSON Towa, very bruised Casey, JOHNSON, Fort Madison, badly hurt about head and shoulders; feared he has internal in- juries. MRS. H. SMITIH, Highland Park, Los Angeles, both arms will be ampu- tated, other bruiges and cuts and internal injuries; the most seriously injured. TRAIN AGENT O. M. WELLS, right shoulder and back injured. J. J. McLAUGHLIN, San bruised and cut about head. MRS. J. J. McLAUGHLIN, bruised. MRS. W. B. HAINES, Berkeley, bruised and back hurt. The news of the disaster reached this city late, as it was necessary for the tralnmen to ride several miles to reach | the nearest telegraph office at Carpen- They reported that the cars were burning. . Two of the cars were partly submerged 1 the sea. The passengers Were crushed terribly. Many sustained broken bones nd were badly bruised. A woman. whose ame was given as Mrs. J. C. Smith' had both arms crushed so badly that they will have to be amputated at the shoulders at once. A special train, which left this city at | 8:30 o’clock, returned at midnight with all of those who had been most seriously in- jured, a large corps of physicians having dressed their wounds while en route to this city. The wounded were taken at once to tlie Cottage Hospital and every physician in the ecity is on‘duty to-night. Many of those whose injuries were not particularly gevere were left at the scene of the wreck to await the arrival of a spe- cial train from Los Angeles. for which place they will leave to-night. It is a matter of the greatest surprise that none was killed, as many people were buried beneath fhe wreckage and were rescued with great difficulty. It s not known just what caused the wreck, as no inspection could be made in the darkness. It ds believed, however, that the rails.soread as the engine was' passing over. them, throwing the first car, followed by three others, donw the steep embankment. Several other cars left Francisco, . ground, and if no further rise takes place the prisoners may be rescued. ENORMOUS LOSS OF LIFE AND DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY. ()PP KA, May 30 (nmlmght )—\nrth Topeka is to-night in the grip of the most appalling disaster that has ever been visited upon any American city. Ignoring the warning that a terrible flood was sweeping down Kansas River and that the water might rise so high as to even imperil their homes, hundreds of residents refused to leave their dwellings and escape while there was time. The oncoming torrent suddenly cut off that section of the city, completely isolat- ing it with a seething volume of water which no boat or raft could breast. Thus_shut off from escape, the doomed populace sought shelter on the roofs of houses, in church steeples and in tree-tops. . Suddenly they were brought face to face with another and more horrible catastrophe. Fire broke out in the city and there was no means of combating the flames. Burning houses, car- ried hither and thither by the torrents, aided in spreading the conflagration. Soon the entire northern district was aflame. Hemmeq in by water, the residents were confronted by death in their burning dwellings. Scores of ‘men, women and children perished in the flames, while scores of others, preferring a less horrible fate, leaped-into the raging waters and were drowned. Estimates late to-night place the number of dead at upward of 200. Five hundred -more are doomed. They cannot be reached though their frantic shrieks can he heard in South Topeka, a mile away. Those who escape fire and torrent must succumb to exposure. The fire still spreading and there is no hope for the survivors. Burning houses are floating about, setting fire to others. The lower stories of the burning buildings contain ten feet of water. , The current is So strong that no beat can approach to give assistance. Reporters who have just arrived from the yiver :av that the water is yet rising.” An un- confirmed rumor from Wamego and Manhattan, west of Topeka, is that another rise is coming down the Republican and Blue Rivers. .If this is true the situation here will be greatly intensified. Fire Chief Wilmarth says that the fire on the east side of Kansas avenue, in North To- peka, is rapidly taking the remaining buildings. The fire is going toward the wind, and this will serve to check its progress, but there is so much burning wreckage floating about that the de- struction of the remaining houses is regarded as certain. People on the roofs of houses are yét heard calling frantically for help. It is reported that two boats loaded” with residents were swamped and that a dozen or more were drowned. Shorey, another suburb of Topeka, located northwest of the city near the Reform School, is now inundated. The Jackson school;house shelters. 100 persons. ..They entered the building before the water-become so high and now they cannot escape. This building is on slightly raised They are now standing on s benches, the water covering the floor several feet deep. Continued on Page 18, Columns 2, 3 and 4. ¢ el