The following is the official recorded account of Miss Marian Shepard of Ripon, Wisconsin; passenger of the sleeper car "Palatine":

"The passengers were grouped about the car in twos, fours, and even larger parties.  Some were lunching, some were chatting, and quite a number were playing cards.  The bell-rope snapped in two, one piece flying against one of the lamp glasses, smashing it, and knocking the burning candle to the floor.  Then the cars ahead of us went bump, bump, bump, as if the wheels were jumping over ties.  Until the bumping sensation was felt, everyone thought the glass globe had been broken by an explosion.  Several jumped up, and some seized the tops of the seats to steady themselves.  Suddenly there was an awful crash.  I can't describe the noise.  There were all sorts of sounds.  I could hear, above all, a sharp, ringing sound, as if all the glass in the train was being shattered in pieces.  Someone cried out, 'We're going down!'  At that moment all the lights in the car went out.  It was utter darkness.  I stood up in the centre of the aisle.  I knew that something awful was happening, and having some experience in railroad accidents, I braced myself as best I knew how.  I felt the car floor sinking under my feet.  The sensation of falling was very apparent.  I thought of a great many things, and I made up my mind I was going to be killed.  For the first few seconds we seemed to be dropping in silence.  I could hear the other passengers breathing.  Then suddenly the car was filled with flying splinters and dust, and we seemed breathing some heavy substance.  For a moment, I was almost suffocated.  We went down, down.  Oh, it was awful!  It seemed to me we had been falling two minutes.  The berths were slipping from their fastenings and falling upon the passengers.  We heard an awful crash.  It was as dark as the sound died away there were heavy groans all around us.  It was as dark as the grave.  I was thrown down.  Just how I fell is more than I can say.  A gentleman had fallen across me, but we were both on our feet in a moment. Everyone alive was scrambling and struggling to get out.  I heard someone say, 'Hurry out; the car will be on fire in a minute!' Another man shouted, 'The water is coming in, and we will be drowned!'  The car seemed lying partly on one side.  In the scramble a man caught hold of me and cried out, 'Help me; don't leave me!'  A woman, from one corner of the car, cried, 'Help me save my husband!'  He was caught under a berth and some seats.  I was feeling around in the dark, trying to release him, when someone at the other end of the car said they were all right and would help the man out.  I groped along to the door, crawling over the heating arrangement in getting to it.  While I was getting out at the door, others were crawling out the windows.  On the left the cars were on fire. On the right a pile of rubbish, as high as I could see, barred escape.  In front of me were some cars standing on end, or in a sloping position.  I followed a man who was trying to scale the pile of debris.  I got up to a coach which was resting on one edge of the roof.  The side was so slippery and icy I could not walk on it, and so I crawled over it. The car was dark inside, and oh, what heart rending groans issued from it! It seemed filled with people who were dying. Two men, a Mr. White, of Chicago, and a Mr. Tyler, of St. Louis, helped me down from the end of the car.  Then I was in snow up to my knees.  Mr. Tyler was badly gashed about the face, and was covered with blood.  This stain on my sleeve was blood from his wound. Right under our feet lay a man, his head down in a hole and his legs under the corner of a car. He asked help, and Mr. White and Mr. Tyler released his legs somehow, and some other men carried him away.  It was storming terribly.  The wind was blowing a perfect gale.  By this time, the scene was lighted up by the burning cars.  The abutments looked as high as Niagara.  Away above us, I could see a crowd of spectators.  Down in the wreck there was perfect panic.  Some were so badly frightened and panic stricken that they had to be dragged out of the cars to prevent them from burning up. Before we got out of the chasm, the whole train was in a blaze.  The locomotive, the cars, and the bridge were mixed up in one indistinguishable mass.  From the burning heap came shrieks and the most piteous cries for help. I could hear far above me the clangor of bells, alarming the citizens.  We climbed up the deep side of the gorge, floundering in snow two feet deep.  They took us to an engine house, where there was a big furnace fire.  The wounded were brought in and laid on the floor. They were injured in every conceivable way. Some had their legs broken; some had gashed and bleeding faces; and some were so horribly crushed they seemed to be dying."

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