Sunday, March 21, 2010

a shapeless mass

Today is the 100th anniversary of the worst train wreck in Iowa. Would a news organization publish the following paragraph today?

"The passengers in the two smashed cars were terribly mangled. One man's head was cut off cleanly above the eyes; another's body was cut in two. A third man was driven head first into a window. The glass was broken and was cutting him where his head rested on the sill. He pleaded with survivors to kill him and one of them broke the glass under his cheek. His lower jaw, cut cleanly away, fell to the ground, and the man died. Mae Hoffman, of Waterloo, known as "The most beautiful woman in Iowa" was in the day coach. She was killed, her body crushed into a shapeless mass."

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