ESCUE workers tonight feared 100 persons lost their lives when the express train, the Olympian, on the Chicago-Milwaukee-St, Paul run, plunged into the swirling waters of Custer Creek as the railway trestle crumbled under the weight of the train.
The engine had reached the opposite bank before centre span, weakened by rushing flood waters, gavè way four cars into the muddy river bank, twenty miles east o; "The pull of the falling cars was such it jerked the engine although at the time the engine had been roaring ahead steam.
Forty bodies had been recovered from the wrecked train this evening and,33 were known definitely to be missing as railway gangs with acetyl lene torches cut "into the partly-submerged sleeping car to remove 27 bodies. Only three cars remained on the tracks as the locomotive, baggage car, mail car, four passenger cars and the sleeper crashed into a ditch beside the rails.
Custer Creek, swollen by a sudden cloud burst, was flowing so swiftly that the body of one woman from the train was reported to have been washed eighty miles downstream shortly after the wreck.
Miss Evelyn Bratiud of Minneapolis Gescribing the wreck said, "the jerk woke me, but I wasn't afraid until I raised the curtain and saw ware: beneath the window. I foolishly waited to gather my clothes. Everyone was calm and all were evacuated from the car in a few minutes. Minutes later the car toppled into the water."
The hero of the disaster, a porter, Mr, Lewis Williams, helped survivors from the cars after smashing windows on the exposed side.
"No Signs of Hysteria"
Mr. C. S, Franke, President of the American Furnace Company of St. Louis and passenger on the train, sai the passengers "displayed coolness Und no signs of hysteria. The train men did splendid work."
Railway gangs and volunteer workers were cóntinuing efforts to recover bodies fróm the cars under the glare of searchlights rushed, to the scene. Efforts were being made to raise a tourist car submerged in the mud in which twenty to thirty persons were believed to have been killed.
Injured passengers were taken to Miles City and arrangements were under way to remove the bodies of those killed. It was feared that many of the dead had been washed far down stream and would not be recovered for some time.
The thick mud on both banks of the stream was hindering rescue operations as the swinging red lanterns of railway workers and the glare of welding torches indicated steady progress of the rescue crew in cutting into the steel cars. Railway officials were en route to the scene to investigate the crash in which the engineer Was apparently unaware of the weakened condition of the bridge.—United Press,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.