CHAPTER XIX.
PERSONAL INCIDENTS.
The personal incidents which occurred were numerous. Many of these have been brought to public attention through the press, yet there are others which have not been narrated. Every one had his own story, but in the confusion of the scene no one is really supposed to have a clear view of the whole event.
These incidents are told by the different passengers who escaped and by the citizens who hastened to the rescue. The following are given as showing the experiences of the women who were on the train. There were many who perished, and it is affecting to read the story of their sufferings while so helpless in the wreck. But the heroism manifested by those who escaped, is especially worthy of note.
The “Cleveland Leader” contains the following:
“At the time of the disaster a man rushed down to the scene ready to help; he saw a woman struggling for life and went to her assistance; he carried her by main force to the solid ice, and then, urged by the cries of the mother, went back to the rescue of a sweet child of three or four years of age; the treacherous wood in splintering, had caught the child in its grasp, and the fire completed the terrible work. The man was compelled to see the child enveloped in flames, and to hear her cries of ‘Help me, Mother!’ ringing out in the agony of death and on the ears of the cruel night. In a moment she was lost, swept up by the sharp tongues of fire, while her mother in helpless agony fell to the earth in a deadly swoon.”
Mr. Reid, one of the passengers, saw a woman held in the ruins and burning. She was calling out amid her groans, “Shoot me, and get me out of this misery.” The saddest sight he saw was a woman looking at her burning child.
Mrs. Lew says when the crash came she was lying down with her head near the open window. The next thing she knew was that her head was out in the open air, and her body inside of the car. As soon as she got her head out, she saw the newsboy who had a few minutes before supplied her with reading matter. She begged of him to help her. He said, “I would be glad to, but my old mother is dependent on me for her entire support. If I am killed what will she do?” Mrs. Lew again entreated him to assist her. He then came so near to her as to be able to take hold of her hand by extending his arms full length. As they joined hands the newsboy pulled and Mrs. Lew threw herself forward, coming out of the car. She then walked on the ice to the bank, where she was helped up the embankment by men and taken to an eating-house, where her wounds were dressed.
A villager saw a woman caught, back of the platform railing, and attempted to pull her out. It was only by superhuman effort he succeeded, then only to find them both up to the waist in the water. “Can you save me?” she asked him, in tones that went to his heart. “Yes, if you hold on,” he said. She did hold on to him with all her strength, and he got her safely to the shore, although in the water several times.
The story of Mrs. Bingham has been already told. She owed her life to her own determined spirit, though it is remarkable that any woman with a broken limb could summon the courage to break a window and then jump into the water and draw herself to the land.