HISTORY deals with facts.  Its province is so faithfully and impartially record them.  In endeavoring to sift the truth from its semblance a variety of conflicting opinions oftentimes presents itself, and renders the task a delicate and difficult one.  In regard to the sad catastrophe to which this chapter is devoted this condition of things exists.  These  differences of opinion relate to the cause of the accident, the number who perished, and to the question whether such means as were at hand were promptly and thoroughly utilized for the saving of human life.
     In the brief account we here give of this tragic event, and to give results rather than to indulge in comment.
     Dec. 29,  1876, was the date of the occurrence; the time of  day about half-past seven o'clock in the evening.  At that moment the Pacific express, No. 5, bound westward over the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern railway, broke through the iron bridge that spanned the Ashtabula river on the line of the road, and suddenly plunged with a precious cargo of human life into a chasm seventy feet deep.
     The night was a wild and bitter one.  A furious snow-storm had raged all the previous day, and had heaped great masses of snow along and across the track.  The wind was a cold biting one, and was blowing with a velocity of about forty miles per hour.  The darkness was dense.  On such a night as this the train, composed of eleven coaches, and drawn by two heavy engines, approached the fated bridge, located about one thousand feet east of the Ashtabula station.  It was more than two hours behind the time for its arrival.  On board there were not less than one hundred and fifty-six human souls.  There was two express-cars, two baggage-cars, three passenger-coaches, one of them the smoking-car, one drawing-room coach, and three sleeping-coaches.  The bridge was an iron structure, and carried a double track.  It consisted of two trusses of the Howe-truss type, and the length of the span between abutments was one hundred and fifty feet.  The train approached the bridge on the south track.  At the moment of the crash one engine, by a sudden plunge forward, had gained the west abutment, while the other engine, two express-cars, and a part of the baggage-car rested with their weight upon the bridge.  The remainder of the train was drawn into the gulf.  Of the persons on board, at least eighty perished in the wreck; at least sixty-three were wounded more or less, but escaped from death; five died after their rescue.

MISS SHEPARD'S DESCRIPTION OF THE LEAP.

     Miss Marian Shepard, of Ripon, Wisconsin, who was a passenger on  the train, and who had the good fortune to escape, has furnished the following vivid account:
     "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

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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, every one 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 here, above all, a sharp, ringing sound, as if all the glass in the train was being shattered in pieces.  Some one cried out, 'We are 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, an 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 form their fastenings and falling upon the passengers.  We heard an awful crash.  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.  Every one alive was scrambling and struggling to get out.  I heard some one 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 some one 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 at 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 was resting on one edge of the roof.  The side was so slippery and icy I could not walk on it, and so 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 the snow up to my knees.  Mr. Tyler was badly gashed about the face, and was covered with blood.  The 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 a perfect 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.

A LIST OF THOSE WHO ARE KNOWN TO HAVE BEEN ON BOARD.

     The following is perhaps as full a list as can be obtained of those who are known to have been on board the fated train.  It is not claimed that it embraces every name, but simply the names of those who it has been ascertained were on board the train and made the fearful leap:
     Persons Recovered from the Wreck. -

     Persons Known to have been lost -         

THE REMOVAL OF THE SURVIVORS FROM THE WRECK.

     The sufferers, as rapidly as they were taken from the wreck, were carried to the nearest place of shelter, and prompt measures were taken for their relief.  The distance of the scene of the disaster from the thickly-settled portion of the town made

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it difficult matter to afford such prompt attention as all were anxious to bestow;  yet both the citizens and the officers of the road made praiseworthy efforts to furnish the best accommodations and medical aid that could be obtained.  A special train was sent from Cleveland, bringing a number of the prominent officers of the road and a corps of able physicians.  A train for Cleveland was made up, and many of the wounded were transferred from the places to which they had been temporarily transported, and placed upon this train and taken to their homes and to a hospital in Cleveland.  Those who remained behind were taken to the houses of citizens and comfortably cared for.  There were a few who visited the wreck, not to give assistance, but to pilfer and plunder.  They were fiends in human form, not human beings.

THE CORONER'S  JURY.

     A jury was empaneled on Saturday, December 30, the day following the accident, composed of the following gentleman, all citizens of Ashtabula: H. L. Morrison, T D. Faulkner, Edward G. Pierce, George W. Dickinson, Henry H. Perry, and F. A. Pettibone.  Edward W. Richards, justice of the peace, was the acting coroner, and Theodore Hall was chosen as the jury's counsel.  These gentlemen began without delay the difficult and important work that lay before them, and prosecuted it with fidelity and unwavering determination to elicit the facts relative to the cause of the accident.  The investigation embraced a session of sixty-eight days, and the following verdict was reached:

VERDICT OF THE CORONER'S JURY.

     There are eight findings in the jury's verdict, which are as follows:
     First.  That at about 7.30 o'clock in the evening of Friday, Dec 29, 1876, the iron bridge in the railroad of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern railway company, spanning Ashtabula creek near Ashtabula station, on said railroad gave way under the two locomotives and express-car, forming the forward portion of the west-bound passenger train on said railroad known as No. 5, and fell as the leading locomotive passed on to the west abutment, leaving a chasm about sixty feet in depth between the abutments of said bridge, into which the baggage and passenger-cars in said train following said express-car were precipitated
     Second.  That in their fall the cars were partially destroyed by crushing, and their destruction was completed by a conflagration immediately following, kindled by fire from their stoves.
     Third.  That the fall of the bridge was the result of defects and errors made in designing, constructing, and erecting it; that a great defect, and one which appears in many parts of the structure, was the dependence of every member for its efficient action upon the probability that all or nearly all the others would retain their position and do the duty for which they were designed, instead of giving to each member a positive connection with the rest which nothing but a direct rupture could sever.  The members of each truss were, instead of being fastened together, rested one upon the other, as illustrated by the following particulars: the deficient cross-section of portions of the top-chords and some of the main braces, and insufficient strength and bad arrangement of both the horizontal and vertical transverse bracing in the construction of the angle blocks as finally modified, without sufficient lugs or flanges to keep the ends of the main and counter braces from slipping out of place; in the construction of the packing and yokes used in binding together the main and counter braces at the points where they crossed each other in the shimming of the top-chords to compensate deficient length of some of their members; in the placing, during the process of erection, of thick beams where the plan required in ones, and thin ones where it required thick ones.
     Fourth.  That the railway company used and continued to use this bridge for  about eleven years, during all which time a careful inspection by a competent bridge engineer could not have failed to discover all these defects.  For the neglect of such careful inspection, the railway company alone is responsible.
     Fifth.  That the responsibility of this fearful disaster and its consequent loss of life rests upon the railway company, which, by its chief executive officer, planned and erected this bridge.
     Sixth.  That the cars in which said deceased passengers were carried into said chasm were not heated "by heating apparatus so constructed that the fire in it will be immediately extinguished whenever the cars are thrown from the track and overturned."  That their failure to comply with the plain provisions of the law places the responsibility of the origin of the fire upon the railway company.  (See act of May 4, 1869.)
     Seventh.  That the responsibility for not putting out the fire at the time it first made its appearance in the wreck rests upon those who were the first to arrive at the scene of the disaster, and who seemed to have been so overwhelmed by the fearful calamity that they lost all presence of mind and failed to use the means at hand, consisting of the steam pump in the pumping-house and the fire-engine "Lake Erie" and its hose, which might have been attached to the steam pump in time to save life.  The steamer belonging to the fire department and also "Protection" fire-engine were hauled more than a mile through a blinding snowstorm and over roads rendered almost impassable by drifted snow, and arrived on the ground too lake to save human life; but nothing should have prevented the chief engineer from making all possible efforts to extinguish what fire then remained.  For his failure to do this he is responsible.
     Eighth.  That the persons deceased, before mentioned, whose bodies were identified, and those bodies and parts of bodies were unidentified, came to their deaths by the precipitation of the aforesaid cars, in which they were riding, into the chasm in the valley of Ashtabula creek left by the falling of the bridge as aforesaid, and the crushing and burning of said cars aforesaid; for all of which the railway company in responsible.

DISSENT FROM SOME OF THE JURY'S FINDINGS.

     There are many who listened to or have read the evidence before the coroner's jury who protest against some of the conclusions reached, and regard them as false.  Against the seventh finding, or that part of it which holds "those who were first to arrive at the scene of the disaster" responsible for not extinguishing the fire, and maintains that their failure to do so resulted in the loss of lives which otherwise might have been saved, there seem to be the best of reasons for dissent.
     In order to prove that "those persons who first arrived," of whatever number, were morally responsible for the loss of life, it should be clearly proven, first, that the means for the extinguishment of the fire were certainly at hand; second, that the censured persons had knowledge of the existence of these means, and that they either willfully refused or stupidly failed to make use of them.  These propositions being substantiated, it should be further shown, third, that if the known means had been utilized there would have been beyond a question more lives saved than were rescued from the wreck by the course which was adopted.  Any one who will take the trouble to investigate for himself the evidence before the jury will convince himself that these propositions are not proven.  Moreover, the presumption will be to any cool, candid mind, not familiar with the evidence, that these persons who first came to the scene of the disaster came actuated with the one desire and impelled by the one motive of rescuing form the wreck as many of their fellow human beings as could be possibly rescued, and the facts which history must record coincide with this presumption.
     The railway company is held responsible for defects in the original construction of the bridge, and for the fearful consequences that thence resulted.  Unless the train left the track for bridge certainly gave way under a load no greater than it had previously sustained perhaps hundreds of times.  There is no positive evidence to prove that the train had left the track, and that thus there was an unusual cause for the failure of the structure, or that there was any cause of failure which is not traceable to its original construction.  If weaknesses in construction existed it would seem that a careful and analytical inspection of the bridge at any time after  its erection would have led to the discovery of these defects, and thus have prevented the sacrifice of life and property.
   The railway company, however, is entitled to great praise for the straightforward, honorable course it adopted after the sad occurrence.  It had to face a severe and sweeping condemnation; but it showed no disposition to cover up the facts in regard to the unhappy calamity, and evinced a desire to secure a full and impartial investigation before the coroner's jury.  The company has made voluntary and satisfactory settlements with one hundred and thirty-nine out of one hundred and fifty-six claimants, who were either injured themselves or lost friends by the accident.  There are seventeen persons with whom adjustments have not yet been made, some of whom sustained no injuries and claim no damages.  The total amount of moneys disbursed in these settlements is $458,422, or an average of nearly $3300 to each claimant.  The largest amount paid to any one claimant was $13,1000, and the smallest amount paid to any one claimant was $36.

DEATH OF CHARLES COLLINS.

     A most sad and most deeply regretted result of the accident was the death by suicide of Charles Collins, chief engineer of the Lake Shore railroad.  He dispatched himself by the aid of a revolver on the fourteenth night of January, 1877.  He felt the keenest sensitiveness for fear that the public would hold him responsible for the calamity, and the thought so preyed upon his mind that it led him to execute the terrible and fatal deed against his life.  He was a man universally esteemed, above reproach, noble in character, pure in life, and his death was deeply and widely mourned.

THE MEMORIAL SERVICES.

      A choice spot in the beautiful village cemetery was chosen for the interment of the unrecognizable dead.  No more loving ceremonial could have been per-

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formed for them by those who were bound to them by the closest ties of nature than was performed by the citizens of Ashtabula.  The business houses were closed.  All flocked to the house of God to pay fitting tribute to the dead.  Services were held in the Methodist church and St. Peter's.  Discourses truly eloquent, because eloquent with sympathy the profoundest the human heart can feel, were delivered; prayers were uttered, sad requiems chanted.  A procession was then formed, with a prominent citizen as marshal, followed by the clergy, by the members of the Masonic fraternity, then by friends of the dead, then by St. Joseph's society, by the Ashtabula light guard, by the Ashtabula light artillery, and by citizens generally.  The procession, which was an imposing one, and was more than a mile long, slowly marched to the cemetery, and the nineteen coffins containing the charred remains of those whose souls were so suddenly transferred from time to eternity were lowered to the receptacles prepared for them.
     The following is a list of those whose remains were not identified, many of them supposed to have been interred in the Ashtabula cemetery:

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