The Chatsworth Wreck



From city, town and hamlet there came a merry throng

To view the great Niagara, with joy they sped along.



The maiden and her lover, the husband and the wife,

The merry prattling children so full of joyous life.



With hand upon the lever and eye upon the track

The engineer is standing while the shades of night grow black



To see the smouldering timbers that lay along the ridge,

Oh God, in pity save them! It is the railway bridge.



A mighty crash of timbers, a sound of hissing steam;

The groans and cries of anguish, a woman's stifled scream.



The dead and dying mingled with the broken beams and bars;

An awful human carnage, a dreadful wreck of cars.

AlI honor to the brave ones who flame and fire fought

AII through that night of horror, a glory dearly bought



Over land and o'er the water this thrilling message crossed

The bridge was burned at Chatsworth, a hundred lives were lost



But oh, how much of sorrow, and oh, how much of pain

Awaited those who journeyed on that fatal railway train.



From Folk Songs Out of Wisconsin, Peters

Collected from F. A. Fair, Grand Forks, ND, 1923



Note: The wreck occurred in 1881 in Chatworth, Illinois/ The

train was headed for Niagara Falls.

@train @wreck

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