Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 17th September 1853, Edition Town of 2, Page 900, Untitled Article

Page 900
Page 12
12 of 24

On this page

  • Text (4)
  • Transcript

    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      Untitled Article

      bare in food , and altogether less " homely" than loathly ! " What previous examples of parents ; ¦ w hat training at school ; what aid , support , or comfort from any preacher of any gospel ? Had the schoolmaster been , with him ? Perhaps—teaching him how to add two to two , or how to read a few pages in the history r of . England about John and the Barons— -totally dry and unintelligible to the thick-minded boy , and conveying no kind of lesson applicable to James Hayes , wlio was under no temptation to deceive Barons or to surrender England to the Pope , but

      was unde * other temptations which that page gave hini no clue to avoid . But perchance the preacher of the Gospel did come there also , telling him that he had been " redeemed , " or perplexing him with the diversity and unity of " the three Persons ; " but how helping him to understand the way in which he could behave to Jane or Mary , or whatever her name was—whether as the object of his courtship or the object of his avoidance ? What had been the example of his

      parents , and who had taught them P How much had he undergone in early life of distracting , tyrannical orders , without aim or consistency- — of brutalizing exasperation , destroying to him the influence of authority ; of reckless dissipation in mid youth , of still more brutalizing despondencies as the " illusions" of Stepney , or the penny theatre , began to flag before his middle-ageish mind ; how many questions to himself , whether the prison was worse than the workhouse , or both worse than such a life , or murder so bad as

      either ? If we could get hold of such a tale , out of such a mouth—trembling , sighing , and shivering —it might teach us that we had better do something more searching with these murderers than to take them up by the police and put them into prisons . If we could not teach them , perhaps we . might drill or bind them into something like tolerable existence . And in the meanwhile ,

      before we become wise enough , what had we best do ? Perhaps the shortest , the ptirest way of dealing with a creature thus depraved and wholly spoiled for living , would be to put him out of the world .

      Untitled Article

      THE WAY TO LIVE A THOUSAND YEARS . Statistics acquit railwaymanagers of any crimes . Indeed , they enjoy less than their rights . But ihr statiotic enide ' nees of this fact produced at the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science are in themselves peculiarly interesting . Mr . ISToison , for example , tells us that railway travelling is so safe , that the ratio of killed is only one in 2 , 018 , 939 , and

      one injured in 337 , 916 . JNow it is only surprising that railway managers do not lull more ; bo that they are under their fair allowance . As it has been shown , indeed , that by far the larger proportion of the deaths on railways happen through accidents which can be prevented , even that one in those two millions needs not bo killed ; but a larger proportion die by real accidents on common roads , and hence it is

      implied , the railways have a right , at least , to this amount of victims . . Romances tell of dragons that used to have a right to so many virgins or otherwise in the year . The railvv . 'vy stoam-dmgon , it appears , also has its right , but it docs not make distinctions of sex , or condition . All of us are grist to that mill . Another inference , although conclusive as bearing upon the rights of railway companies , ia peculiarly surprising . Thero is but one passenger killed for every 40 , 000 , 000 of miles travelled , and Mr . Neison has boon at the pains to

      calculate ) that " if a , person were always to bo travelling on the railway , at the average speed of twenty miles « n hour , including stoppage "how these minute particularities strengthen , tlio value oftho evidence !— " he would travel 175 , 000 miles yearly ; mid ho must bo (¦ onslantly travelling for 228 years to bo killed by accidents from all causes . " Imagine u man who has an ambition to bo killed by " aooidontH from all cannon" ! If ; niiiHt be a suicidal propensity exceeding that

      of the monomaniac who lured n boat in order that he might tako prussio acid , ( Mil ; his throat , and jump into the river . But if a man wore bent' upon that rowarluiblo flelf-Hnerifioe , lie would have to travel two hundred and twentyeight years for the purpose , even if he travelled every hour in the twenty-four . Again , " if he travelled only twelve hours a , day for every day in tho year , " including Sundnyfl , " it would tako

      him 426 years to be killed by " accidents from all causes . " , . ¦ ^ , , It would , however , take him 852 years to be killed by accidents , by causes beyond the control of companies ; or if he preferred to be killed only by accidents from causes under control of companies , he could not possibly manage it under 980 years . Evidently , the special murder is the one that takes the longest time ; e converso , it is to be calculated that a man who desires to realize the oriental compliment of living for ever , ought to travel constantly on railways for the purpose of being killed by causes under the control of companies , which would insure his life for 980

      years . , , Mr . Cheshire , however , is the man who supplies the most practical information on this subject . As only one passenger is killed in twoand-a-half millions of passengers , he tells us , the whole population of London could take an average journey by rail , and only one death occur .. Here is an opportunity for London—all going out of town in one grand excursion train ! It would be a great improvement if the one death were arranged before starting , so that spme ambitious cockney might earn the historical immortality of a Curtius .

      There is , indeed , one mournful fate attending the railway . It is exhibited in a calculation deduced from these tables by the same Mr . Cheshire . Supposing , he says , there were a railway to the sun , it would take 514 , 000 , 000 of years to accomplish the journey ; and as it has been shown that every soul in the train would perish in 228 , 000 , 000 of years by the chances of accidents , no individual could ever reach that luminous globe . A bad look out for " the brother of the Sun and Moon ! " It is melancholy to reflect that we are thus , by the inevitable voracity of " accidents , " prohibited-to travel by theGreatLondon and Solar Junction . Some of ns , however , would

      be quite content to feel a comfortable certainty that we could travel from London to Birmingham ; but when these practical men supply us with information , as the clown in the Winter ' Tale would say , they " lay it on thick . " We recommend the information supplied by Mr . Neison and Mr . Cheshire , on the London and Sun Line , and on Life Assurance , to Bradshatc .

      Untitled Article

      WHAT ON EARTH IS TO BE DONE ? If the ingenious gentlemen at Hull had considered the question of railway accidents , we might have had some useful information : and instead of knowing how to travel safely for a thousand years to tho sun and moon , we might now fee able to see how a man could go from town to town on this planet without close risk of life or limb . Some suggestions by the savans arc placed by the papers as a discussion on railway accidents , but the reporter must have mistaken the application of the words . Dr . Scorcsby said that no train should start from one station until leave to advanco was signalled from the next station . Has the Doctor never

      heard of express trains , nor of the modern requirements of fifty miles an hoxir P Another reverend gentleman thought that trains should have wings , to be spread out when a full stop was wanted . This funny proposition scarcely called for the serious reply that , to stop a heavy train , the wings should be acres of canvass . The same adviser hinted that we should stop an advancing train by electrifying tho l'ails , a very effective check surely , for it would loosen tho line and capsize the carriages . Mr . Oldham pointed out what is really the cause of many disasters , tho

      overworking of iron , which loses fibre , and becomes crystalline as it gets old . Another gentleman intimated , reasonably enough , that the harsh effects of collisions might bo softened by providing the buffers of each railway carriage with " boxing gloves . " But Mr . Fairbairn'H inquiry as to " the necessity of ascertaining how long an axlo might bo kept safely without changing the character of ( he molecules of tho iron " seemH unnecessary : when i Lord Mayor ' s nose is scverod , or a member of

      Parliament shattered , them wo " ascertain" that theohurneferof themoleeuloNof tho iron is very bad indeed . In lino , all scientific inquiries wore pooh poohed by a . railway official present ; ho laid all the blame on tho public , who delay trains by coming too lato . Tho numerous instances of railway trains waiting at stations until panting gentlemen" run up , confirms this ; and tho precise punctuality of tho directors thomHolven miikoa this offonnivc delay tho more criminal * Dr .

      Scoresby concluded the discussion by saying tli f "if the public are so unreasonable as to insist upon being conveyed safely , punctually , and as fast as possible , they must be content to meet with accidents . " This is not true . Hail ways can be made speedy , safe , and . certain . In this fast epoch senility steals quickly- cm , and railways are already antique . Their managers have blundered from the beginning . They vacillated about gauges ; they built lines for one kind of carriage and use them for another ; they have made

      engines too heavy for speed , and too wearisome to the rails ; they have covetously extended their lines beyond the resources of an agency not enlarged in proportion ; they have greedily grasped at various kinds of traffic , and have not means to manage tho complications ; they work engines too much , keep rails too long in use , and retain the worst method of making the permanent way . Their officers are too few , their arrangements miserably rude , and their carriages constructed to facilitate the fatality of accidents . For

      instance , almost all the carriages are of teak , accounting for that general paragraph in r eports of accidents : " The carriages were broken into little bits . " But these deficiencies are defended on the ground that the company cannot afford to do better , and the poverty of the dividend is pointed at as an excuse . This , also , is not true . The company could afford to have a safe line , but the money they should spend in paying a staff of officers is given to attorneys in Palace-yard ; the

      funds that might enable them to replace rails or rolling stock are spent in legal and Parliamentary contests with rival lines . Before a single spade was put into the ground of the London and York Railway , 600 , 000 / 5 . of the shareholders' money was spent in a Parliamentary battle . And the opposing companies—a host in themselves—had to bear their own expenses in the foolish fight . The other day , the two greatest companies quarrelled over a third , and long law proceedings are entailed because the rival directories covet

      territory . This thirst for extension is : a disease—a galloping decline . The London and Birmingham Company stretched onward , and assumed tho " North Western" style ; its dividends fell from ten to- five per cent . It lately bought or built six branch lines : they cost 3 , 800 , 000 ^ , and return 10 , 000 f a year . Here are the great first causes of railway accidents .

      The immediate causes of most railway accidents arc the varieties in speed and time of the different trains . It sorely taxes station-masters to bear in mind the differing arrangements for express , goods train , coal train , excursion train , parliamentary train , special train , ordinary train , and pilot-engine . In short , if we require safety , we must not have express trains run on the same lino with slow goods trains , and excursion trains , ' or on the same lino with ordinary trains stopping at intermediate stations . For all our important lines of country , we must liave new lirvns rocelnsivelv built for " express

      purposes . On such a line , all the trains travelling at the same speed , stopping but very seldom , unimpeded by the trains of branch lines , and unhindered by tho opposition of goods traffic , couia travel safely at a great speed . Tho engines should be light , to suit the trains ; the carriages well padded , and well built , of good wood , not brittle teak ; and the road built on tho broaa gauge , with rails " fish-jointed" intoan inilexjm " line . With airy , spacious carriages , al tor ( i ; freo transit from one to another , and connui - 0111

      ing conveniences for refreshment on tho J"" ^' such an institution would , at once , bo » u cjossful . A direct line of this kind from Loikio to Liverpool would pay . Tho distance ««««" j travelled in four hours ; and eighteen ""l ""^ , persons paying 100 / . a year for Jininuil Uh r . ^ would suffice to shirt and support tllO i lm < J' nl 0 old railways would then bo forced to fotcu what the ' old roads were — <; . ouvonI 0 n < " ^ () 0 ( lH . country towns , and highways for heavy U fc But for quick communication between oiu I , . . cities we must have direct lines , with naio at express speed .

      Untitled Article

      PERSONAL MANUNKS . ^ . . Soans facts of tho day nhow a strm'f ? 0 ( Io < 5 . "J ( Ik tho poi-Hoiml manliness of the peop le . i ' ] ' ]> lCC , a husband hunted hiw wife about a m ' ! . ° , ' ') naii , and when in terror she crouched . bol »»> jK , that man warned her off" , afraid to prow * When the sweep Onnnon maltreated tiio l

      Untitled Article

      900 THE LEADER / [ SatuRD a

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 17, 1853, page 900, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2004/page/12/