IN THE MAIL VAN.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 125, 27 May 1914, Page 6

IN THE MAIL VAN.

NEXT THE ENGINE. A most extraordinary escape from death was that of the three mail sorters, who wore in the first carriage on the train, next the engine. There wore three of them. 11. tiark. K. Bristol, and S. Scott, all of Auckland, dust before tho smash, they had completed sorting the mail, and were standing in the back portion of tho carriage tying the letters into bundles. Interviewed by a "Star" reporter, Clark said that.'he hadn't a very clear recollection of what tho impact it-self was like, but ho first remembers finding himself jammed between a mass of complicated wnvkago and the wall of the carriage. "1 hadn't an inch to move." ho said, "and 1 was dazed with the pain and shock, 'file lights had. ol course, irone out, and I could see nothing, but I could hear the gas hissing out of the reservoirs under the carnage The thought of fire at once struck mc and 1 culh-d out to my mates, but for a few minutes got no answer. Presently they answered. amj I found that tliev were quite mc. We joined 'Hands, and by dint of a lot of hard pulling got 'one another tree. \Vcrawled and pushed our way through the splintered wood, mail-bags. and debris until we found a hole big enough to get throug-h. When we made a pa.ssage through this, we found that there was still the viall of i he other en mane preventing our escape, but alter a lug struggle 'that hardly left any clothes on ii-. wp got through a window, an.l some people outside helped v- lo the ground. We all immediately culled a warning not to light matches, for vmcould .-till hoar the gas escaping. "When lamps came it seemed that, our escape had been nothing le-< than a miracle. (hir carriage and ihe sleeper behind us had been completely telescoped, and the ni:iss ~f wreckage made mo foe! that I had been exceedingly fortunate in escaping wiih a few bruises and cats."