It is still a question whether Mr. and Mrs. Bliss were in this car.
The gentleman and lady who have been described above, are supposed to have been Mr. and Mrs. Hall, of Chicago, rather than Mr. and Mrs. Bliss. The gentleman was reading to the lady the book “Near Nature’s Heart;” as the newsboy passed, he took out “Daniel Deronda,” read it a little, and afterward bought “Helen’s Babies.” Mr. Ormsbee, the sole survivor from the car, judging from photographs which have been shown him, declares that they were not Mr. and Mrs. Bliss. Mr. Burchell, of Chicago, however, maintains that Mr. and Mrs. Bliss were in this car, and his statement is worthy of credit. There is no doubt that they were either in this or in the “City of Buffalo,” and it is probable that no trace of them will ever be found.
The occupants of the “Palatine” were, Mrs. Bingham, of Chicago; Mabel Arnold, North Adams, Mass.; H. L. Brewster, Milwaukee, Wis; B. B. Lyons, of New York city; Mrs. Annie Graham, of New York; Miss Marion Shepard, Ripon, Wis.; Geo. A. White, Portland, Me.; John J. White (?) of Boston, Mass; Chas. S. Carter, of New York; Mr. L. B. Sturges, Minneapolis, Minn.; Mr. J. E. Burchell, Chicago, Ill.; Col. A. Maillard, of San Rafael, Cal.; Mr. H. W. Shepard, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Lewis Bochatay, Kent’s Plains, Ct.; John J. Lalor, of Chicago, C. H. Tyler, St. Louis; and Jos. D. Pickering and nephew, of Buffalo, N. Y.
The persons who were in the “City of Buffalo” are as follows: Mr. Henry White, of Weathersfield, Conn., who broke the glass door and got out; Mrs. Bradley, of California; Mr. J. P. Hazelton, of Charleston, Ill., and Mr. Gage, of Illinois, who escaped and afterward died. The nurse and child of Mrs. Bradley, who occupied the rear state-room, perished. Mrs. A. D. Marston and her mother and boy; Mrs. Trueworthy and daughter, Mrs. Coffin, of California; Mrs. Moore, of Hammondsport, N. Y.; Mr. Hodgkins, of Bangor, Maine; “a gentleman going to South America, very polite and fine looking,” who afterwards proved to be Mr. J. Spooner, of Petershaw, Mass.; Mr. D. A. Rogers, of Chicago; Mr. Barnard and Miss Mixer, daughter of Dr. Mixer of Buffalo; Mr. Rice, of Lowell, Mass.; Mr. J. F. Aldrich, of Des Moines, Iowa; and, it is supposed, Mrs. H. M. Knowles, and child of Cleveland;--twenty-one in all. The probability is that all who were in this car were so completely destroyed that scarcely a vestige of them remained. There has been the most thorough search for even the least scrap that might give trace of their presence in the ill-fated coach. It is probable that the fall at first served to crush those who were in it, and that the position of the car gave a draft which intensified the heat so as to consume the bodies. The fire burned here the longest, and was still burning at two o’clock in the morning.