132

THE ASHTABULA DISASTER.

seats to steady himself. All of a sudden, in theflash of a second, the passengers were thrown tothe end of the coach which had reached thewater. The broken pieces of ice, the snow, andfragments of the car came in with a rush. Hecaught the stove, which had not yet been cooledfrom its heat, thinking to save himself therebyfrom drowning. In doing so he burned his handto a blister, while the other portion of his bodywas freezing in the water, lie remembered thecrashing of the smoker upon his car. As soonas he could collect his thoughts he went to workto extricate himself, but how he did it was unableto state. He only knew he was out of the carand into the fragments of ice and floating piecesof the wreck. From there he managed to reachunbroken ice and from thence he climbed up theheight and was the first of that scarred andbruised number to reach the top. In doing thisit is to be remembered that the poor man bad apiece of gilt molding, one inch wide, three-quar-ters of an inch thick, and eight inches long, in aportion of his body. It had entered the leftshoulder, back of the collar-bone, and penetratedunder the shoulder-blade into the side. liescafcelv realized his situation until he had beenconveyed to the nearest place of comfort. In hiscar were from 40 to 45 passengers; in the