The Evening Bulletin

MET ON A CURVE.

Terrible Result of a Collision Between Passenger Trains on Southern in Tennessee.

SIXTY-TWO PERSONS ARE DEAD.

Death List May Exceed 70 as Many of the 162 Injured Are in a Serious Condition.

The Crowded Coaches of One Train Were Crushed Like Eggshells

One of the Engineers Evidently Disobeyed Orders.

Knoxville, Tenn., Sept. 26.-Running on a railroad in a supposedly high condition of maintenance, and having about them every safeguard known to modern railroading, two trains on the Southern railway, carrying heavy lists of passengers, came together in a frightful head-end collision near Hodges, Tenn., Saturday.

The appalling loss of life and maiming of the living resulted apparently from the disregarding of orders given to the two trains to meet at a station which has for a long time been their regular meeting point.

The claim of failure to see either the station or signals can not be set up by the engineer of the westbound train were he alive to enter a plea of defense, as the accident happened in broad daylight, and, according to the best information obtainable, he had the order in a little frame in front of him as his monster of iron and steel rushed by Newmarket Station and soon after came full upon an eastbound passenger train making for Newmarket, in compliance with instructions to meet the westbound train which carried the sleepers from the east for Knoxville, Chattanooga and other southern cities.

The possibility exists that the ill-fated engineer may have been asleep, or that death had suddenly taken the sight from his eyes before Newmarket was reached. But nothing is known save that the orders were not obeyed.

The trains were on time and not making over 35 miles an hour, yet the impact as they rounded a curve and came suddenly upon each other was frightful. Both engines and the major portions of both trains were demolished, and why the orders were disregarded or misinterpreted will never be known, as the engineers of the two trains were crushed, their bodies remaining for hours under the wreckage of the monster locomotives.

The death list as a result of the fearful wreck had grown Sunday night to 62 and it will probably exceed 70 before Tuesday, as many of the injured are in a serious condition and more deaths will occur at the hospital. Sunday there were six deaths at that institution, the last one occurring at 8 o'clock Sunday night, when M. P. Gant, a prominent North Carolinian, residing at Shelby, N. C., passed away. Others who died Sunday at the hospital were the two colored firemen, two little girls and Nep Miller, colored, of Johnson City. To the list of dead there must be added an unknown infant found Sunday at the scene of the wreck and two other unidentified bodies.

A force of 150 men toiled all day long at the scene of the wreck. Before 2 o'clock Sunday morning the track was clear for through trains, but it required many hours to clear the debris.

Engineers Parrott and Kane were found beneath their engines, but their bodies were not badly crushed. Small fragments of bodies were found in many instances Sunday, but it is thought that they belong to bodies already found and brought to this city.

One little baby was found by the wreckers, but that was all.

The cause of the terrible loss of life in the heavy eastbound train was explained Sunday. It seems that the second coach ploughed its way into a bank in such a manner that the other cars were jammed into it and pushed on by the weight of the heavy Pullmans, were crushed like eggshells.

Physicians at the hospital stated Sunday night that of the long list of injured which they have in their care it is probable that not more than four will die. The complete list of injured as given by the railroad officials shows a total of 162, but this includes all persons who were only slightly hurt or scratched.

Columbia, S. C., Sept. 26.-A telegram has been received at Gaffney, this state, announcing the death of Lee Hill at Jellico, Tenn., who was killed in an explosion in a powder mill. The body was expected at Gaffney Saturday night but instead a telegram was received stating that the body, accompanied by Scott Hill, his father, Lee Hill's wife and four children and a single sister were all on the ill-fated Southern train which was wrecked Saturday and that all were killed. The bodies of all seven of the family are expected to reach Gaffney Monday morning.