RECENT RAILROAD DISASTERS. 317 



train and kill tlie passengers. His mind wandered for a moment, 

 he forgot his duty, and before he came to himself the mischief 

 was done. Carelessness is hardly a complete explanation, nor is 

 f orgetf ulness. . . . Does our mental machinery suddenly fail us at 

 times ? " 



The continuity of the track is ordinarily broken by a like 

 switch every few miles. An hour's ride takes the train over a 

 dozen such breaks, any one of which misplaced means a horror 

 like that of the Wabash. The rear guard may at any moment, 

 from some irregularity to his train, be called upon to hasten back 

 with the danger signal against an on-rushing second section or 

 a close-following train. Should he stumble amid the storm, be 

 blinded by the snow, or should the wind extinguish his light, or 

 should he, like Thompson, fail from some unaccountable cause, a 

 second Yonkers would follow. 



Whether the explanation suggested by the World be the true 

 one or not, one thing is very evident in the light of our modern 

 experience, and that is, that such responsibilities as now attach to 

 the trainman of a modern express, whether it be engineman, 

 switchman, or brakeman, ought not to be longer intrusted to the 

 protection of any single mind, however faithful, however consci- 

 entious. Were the human mind and body perfect as a machine, 

 faultless in its workings, and with no liability to irregularity, fail- 

 ure, or lapse, we might be so justified. But, not to speak of the 

 body, no mental organization is perfect. Frailty is a part of man's 

 inheritance. Against that frailty, against that fatal moment, we 

 have now no protection whatever. We are abandoned by our sole 

 guardian, by the only divinity that stands over us, and we are 

 left to a horrible death or to the tortures of hell. It is idle to say 

 these men are careless, that they are regardless of duty. They 

 are as faithful and as trustworthy as would be any other men put 

 in their places as faithful as our human nature permits. 



It simply appears that we have been attempting to force from 

 our human organization a degree of exactitude in the operations 

 of the mind which the brain refuses to yield. And in view of the 

 sanguinary record of the few past years, directly at the hands of 

 the men in charge, we may well question the wisdom of a longer 

 trial. It no longer remains an uncertainty where the weakness of 

 our present system lies, where the danger abides. That the brain 

 power of a modern express is disproportionate to the requirements, 

 admits no further question. Safety in land travel, no less than 

 in ocean travel, demands a duplication of the officers in charge. 

 Whether it be engineman, rear guard, brakeman, switchman, or 

 whoever undertakes to stand between the passenger and the mul- 

 tiplied dangers of the road, there should be a first and a second 

 officer, that, in any and every emergency, whether through care- 



