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SAN FRANCISCO, MO
PRICE FIVE CENTS.
VOLTME LXXXIX->O. 80.
DISASTER TO THE CENTRAL PACIFIC'S
EAST-BOUND FLYER COSTS SIX LIVES
SCENE OF THE WRECK OF THE CENTRAL. PACIFIC FLYER AT. MILL.
CITY. AS REPRODUCED \ FROM, A TELEGRAPHIC DESCRIPTION,
AND SIX OF THE KILLED *AND IKJURED.
M!s«i El«le.Bl!««lnsrer, 1G yearn of ace, daughter of Mr. and Sirs.
Adolph niKslnser, sliKhtly brained.
Condnctor 11.' E. Ma'rkle of Oscden. scalp wonnda and face and.
body ?>rniiieii» * •.
nrakeman J. J. Rreres of Offden. ,nl!p;ht hndr bmlaea. '
EnRlncw Georpre Abbay of Wadxirortb, . head and face scalded*
shoulder wrenched and left foot injured.
. Mall Clerk Schuyler of San I'rancUco, right lee broken and eat
abont the head. . 4 .
'Mall Clerk Cavln of San Francisco, hrulsed abont the body and
cut en the beau. , .
THE INJURED.
THB DEAD.
ADOLIIII BISSINGER, aged 40 years, of *B!tain«rer £ Scblon,
San Francixco.:. .. . i.L.iV, . ;¦
.MRS. ADOLPII BISSIXGER. aced 3O yean, of San Francisco.
* \ C'L. AVHITAKER, fireman, aped S3 years, of AVada worth, »t.
CLIXTOX.n. COUI.TErt, ased about 35 years, of San Franelaeo.
Tito trampi, names unknown.
VICTIMS OF NEVADA
RAILWAY DISASTER
: -. "The train was running : at high speed
when • the ;¦ place .was reached. No danger
was suspected. The engine passed across
was ever '¦ known ; to :• accumulate b«f ore
and there ; was ¦", no stream there. The
sandy soil was slightly frozen on top and
all the water ran off Instead of being ab
sorbed : as ; usual, this causing- the great
accumulation. . ¦ .1. • , '
Two bodies, evidently those of trarnDS,
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.
. Fireman Whltaker met death at his post
of duty, probably never, knowing what
had happened. His body is pinned under
the qebris of Iron and can be plainly seen;
yet It is in such a mass "of wreckage that
up to 8 o'clock to-night he could not' be
got out. The body ,waa terribly scalded."
' Clinton R. Coulter, had evidently- been
killed outright. When ¦ found l he . was
doubled up, with a large* hole in one side
of the head, back- of .the ; ear. "The de
ceased had a ticket to Chicago and re
turn. , .
York. As soon as Miss Bissinger 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. , .
"The wreck occurred at - 5:13 in the
morning. . Passenger train No. .2. better,
known as'.the*Flyer..was speeding along.,
having lost several hours by ' : a .washout
west . of \ Mill I City. Two . miles Vast of.
Mill i City - the track runs near • the foot 'of,
some hills sloping 'fronT the south. .The
heavy rain of Saturday -had sent the
water down 'to the, depth of ten or twelve
¦'feetVoii .the- upper slde v of .the , track. -Xn
a depression in the ground. A culvert'
under v ; the track ¦ evidently' ] had been
clogged arid the water ran over the track
arid eroded _the : sandy "soil ' until ¦ .a" .. cut
sixty ' feet wide and thirty feet ;deep had
been formed.- This' was till spanned ; by
the" track,',. field upjby ; the . rails. Strange^
to': saS\"*it was' a place where no water*
.', BLUE CANTON, Fab. 17.— From a pas
senger of No. '".2,'thc flyer wrecked in Ne
vada, who passed .through here, to-night
on the special train \ conveying the '•. in
jured to' San ': Francisco, the following
story, cf the n-reck was obtained: ¦
and Brings Instant Death' to
the 'Six Unfortunate' .Vic- |
. ' tims.': ' .. -.. •' '•'->-**• VV
Disaster , Comes i Without \ Warning"
Millwood.. Cal.. informing her of the sad
death of her hr.aband." .'/ .' ' I
ACCOUNT GIVEN I
BY A PASSENGER
•^Telegrams were sent, to an. uncle of Miss
Bissinger. at the j. Hotel Richelieu.' in Sari
Francisco., notifying him of the deaths of
.his relatives ;ahd rcquestlng.him I to meet
his niece/ /-Mrs. ,' Coulter,' ..the' widow! of,
Clinton R. Coulter, was telegraphed to at
At 1:50 p. m. a special, consisting of an
engine, a tourist : car and a. caboose, left
Mill City for Wadsworth. -with allof the
dead and Injured except "Conductor
Markle and Brakeman Reeves,: they re-'
questingVthat they ; be , taken; to •- their
homes at Ogden. .Upon arrival; at Wads
worth a special : - was. sent to. Sacramento! 1
conveying 1 the dead .'.and /injured '.whose
homes are in California. .
Torrents of water are rushing, down the^
steep ravine through; the great, gap 'occa
sioned by the ;backlng.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 plle
drlver from that, place. .Two arid possibly
three:days •will elapse before the track is
repaired.: .,Flve: engines are endeavoring
to" clear the right of, way and about 150 la
borers; are building; a track of some na
ture" with .a. skeleton structure to allow
the passing 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 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 . f r.om . Wads-worth -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'
Wlnnemucca ¦ physicians having ' taken
care of the ! injured.-
Collision Barely Averted.
No. 4. the eastbound . express, ¦ was fol
lowing the" overland limited closely. The'
rear brakeman' on ! No. 2 had butva few
minutes' time to flag it to preveht a rear
end collision. ;. " •• _¦< . V • ¦ -¦! •-.- ¦ ¦ "• ¦*'. ,
How Mall Clerks Scuyler and Cavln es-'
,caped with, their ilves Is Jan "'enigma ¦ to
those who saw the position of the wreck
age, yet their injuries are very slight, i
Mr. Bissinger of the firm of Bissinger
& Schlcss. hide and tallow merchants of
San Kranci3co, occupied a- drawing-room
with his wife and daughter. Elsie, at the
head end of the first sleeper. This car
was telescoped by the buffet. Both ,Mr.
and Mrs. Blssinser were killed,, while
their daughter, occupying the berth above
them, was but slightly Injured. Mr. Bis
linger ar.d family . were : en route; to 1 New
Fata of the Bissingers.
Conductor Markle, Brakeman Reeves
and the train barber were in the ccfm-,
posite car. Brakeman Reeves 'Jumped
from a window, landing In the creek be
low, which was at that time about four
feet deep. . ¦ • -.
Engineer Abbay says that he felt the
engine settling and started to get out
through the window, but he had hardly
moved from .his seat before the crash
came. Hew he got out he doesn't Know.
engine. The composite car lies across the
gap of seventy-five feet and telescopes
the head Pullman for nearly thirty feet.
Because of beins late the flyer was
making a fast run. endeavoring to make
up time. It r.-as going at the rate of
fifty miles an hour at the time of the ac
cident. When two roiles east of Mill City
it struck a new washout that evidently
was caused by a mountain torrent only
a short time before the train's arrival.
The engine got txcroFS safely, but th©
'ender Is one mass of twisted Iron, stand
ing on end against the boilerhead of the
locomotive. The trucks of the tender, to-
F p ther with those of the mail car and
composite car, are In the torrent below.
The mall car went to the left, the rear
end beinc clear of the head end of the
Bunning at High Spe* d. ¦*
At the point where the accident oc
curred, there Is an embankment of thirty
feet to a ravine down which water runs
from a water shed of fifteen miles. Dur
ing the pa*t two -weeks heavy and fre
quent snowstorms have occurred In the
mountains, piling the snow into Immense
drifts in the canyons. This began to melt
because cf the unusually warm weather
of Friday and Saturday. Gnngs of work
men have born labouring since yesterday
mornir.gr endeavoring- to keep the roadbed
in the- vicinity of Mill City in good condi
tion. At II o'clock last 'night a washout
was discovered a half mile west of Mill
City, and ail energy was put toward re
pairing It. This was not accomplished
until 4:30 o'clock this morning. Passen
ger trains Nos. 2 and -4 had been held at
Humboldt. nine miles distant, while the
break was being repaired.
WINNEMUCCA, Nev.,
Feb. 17.— Six persons
perished and six others
were seriously Injured
In a disaster that oc
currpd to Central Pa
cific eastbound flyer No. 2 two miles cast
r.f Mill City at an early hour this morn
ing-. While running at high speed to make
up lost time the flyer crashed Into a wash
out that hnd been caused by a mountain
torrent. The thock came without the
slightest warning, and the engine and
train crewc and sleeping-car Inmates at
the forward end of the train were pinned
beneath the debris of the locomotive tender
ar.d cars that were twisted into a tangled
mass of wrfekate in an Instant by their
own Impetus. Of the six persons who per
ished. His probable that no one had time to
realize the fate that was upon them. Three
of them— Mr. and Mrs- Adolph Bissinger
and Clinton R. Coulter— were San Fran
ciscans occupying berths In the forward
Pullman. Of the other victims of the dis
aster, one was Fireman "Whitaker, who
died et his post, and the others wer*
tramps stealing a ride on the train.
the yawning chasm on the frail bridge of
rails, and hung from the opposite bank.
The momentum of the train carried th«
mail car acros3 beyond the engine. The
composite car, which came next, formed
a bridge across the cut, Its ends touching
both sides, the sleeper next to It telescop
ing the rear end. The end of the sleeper
was crushed. In. and here Blsslnser and
THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL.
