Nov. 10, 1882.] 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



385 



THE MIDLAxND accident. 

 By E. a. Proctor. 



THE terrible accident on the Midland Eailway has led 

 several of our daily and weekly papers to speak of 

 the dangers of the American railway carriages. Those 

 who have so written can simply know nothing of the 

 American system. Every car in America is well warmed 

 either by hot-air pipes or by a stove, and this arrangement 

 has been in vogue for more than a quarter of a century ; 

 yet such an accident as happened on the Midland lias 

 never been heard of in America, and could not possibly 

 happen there. For three sufficient reasons. First, each 

 car by day and by night is properly watched, being practi- 

 cally under survey of all the train servants not actually 

 employed on the engine, but specially watched, if a "Sleeper," 

 by its own conductor and porter ; secondly, no one would 

 be allowed either to smoke in his berth or to carry a 

 reading-lamp — an American conductor who should be offered 

 a doUar to allow this to be done would behave very much 

 as an English officer who was offered a half-crown to tell 

 his general's plans to an enemy ; thirdly, there is not 

 throughout the length and breadth of America a train 

 which presents the absurdity of combined gangway or aisle 

 cars like the Pullman and thwart boxes like our English 

 carriages ; the gangway down the middle of a Pullman is, 

 in America, simply a part of a chain of gangways running 

 the entire length of the train. 



"What was American in the car was the saving of Ufe. 

 Xo one who has ever travelled in America will believe 

 that the fire was caused by the warming apparatus. It 

 undoubtedly had its origin in one of two personal acts, 

 which ought both, as Sala well remarks in the Illustrated 

 London Xeus, to be made criminal offences, punishable by 

 fine and imprisonment. If an ordinary carriage had been 

 set on fire in that way, there would have been no chance 

 of escape for anyone in the compartment where the fire 

 originated. But, in the Pullman, despite the additional 

 risk introduced by the absence of all power of commu- 

 nicating with the driver, every one was saved except the 

 unfortunate man in whose berth, it is too probable, the 

 fire began (who was possibly asphyxiated before the tire 

 fairly broke out). 



I say that there was no power of communicating with 

 the driver, because the ingenious arrangement actually 

 adopted is equivalent to cutting off all communication, in 

 the most probable cases rendering communication desirable. 

 In British and continental trains an arrangement is adopted 

 which niiyht possibly tempt an unfortunate passenger 

 murderously assaulted by another to lose all chance of 

 effectual defence while trying to communicate with the 

 driver. One pictures the poor wretch leaning out of 

 window to feel for the rope while his assailant did for 

 him effectively, or on the continent trying to break the 

 glass which covers the communicator, instead of trying to 

 break the force of his assailant's attack. But under no 

 circumstances can one conceive any benefit arising from 

 the attempt to use the ridiculously futile excuse for a means 

 of communication with the driver. 



Every one who has travelled much both in Europe and 

 in America, will agree with !Mr. Sala's remark that " our 

 present locked-in, boxcd-up, stuffy, and narrow compart- 

 ments, are absurd, dangerous, and scandalous to us as a 

 nation." Because when railway travelling was first intro- 

 duced, stage coaches were in fashion, the idea which a 

 " slow " railway projector naturally formed was to make 

 a train consist of a number of rather large stage coaches ; 

 and this arrangement, which was feeble-minded enough 

 then, has remained in vogue for more than half a century. 



Let me briefly enumerate a few of the advantages of the 

 American system, and then I will touch on their more or 

 less imaginary disadvantages : — 



First, you can get on board an American train, or leave 

 it, when the train is moving pretty fast, in perfect safety. 

 I have run after a train and got in the rear car (with 

 a helping hand from a brakesman) when it had attained 

 a rate r.f certainly twelve miles an hour. I have never 

 left one travelling at that rate, but by the rear car it 

 could be done safely enough — at no worse expense than a 

 sprawl. 



Secondly, when on board you can choose any car or any 

 part of any car to sit in ; you can go to the smoking-car 

 if you want to ; or, if you like, you can visit the baggage- 

 van to see that your luggage is safe — all when the train is at 

 full speed. I have walked the whole length of a train with 

 both hands occupied by satchels, kc, stopping only when 

 opening and shutting the car doors. 



Thirdly, if pressed for time, you can, in nearly all parts 

 of America, go on board without a ticket, and obtain one 

 at the first visit of the conductor. 



Fourthly, tickets are attended to while the train is 

 travelling. There is no absurd stoppage at the last station 

 but one, and proclamation of " all tickets ready ; " but, 

 without delay of any sort, all tickets are collected tn route. 



Fifthly, the travellers by the train form a single com- 

 munity, with a force of conductors, brakesmen, porters, and 

 luggage men, so that if a disorderly or drunken person gets 

 on board, he must behave himself, at the risk of being 

 turned off the train (in bad cases while the train is moving 

 pretty fast, so that his exit is hasty and undignified, yet 

 not unpleasLng to those he had thought to annoy). 



Sixthly, you generally travel in much more real privacy 

 and comfort than in an English first-class carriage, not 

 secured by a lawless fee to the guard. I used to find 

 quite a rest Ln a railway journey between my lectures in 

 America, with a little two-seat compartment to myself, all 

 the passengers sitting in similar compartments facing one 

 way ; I could read or reflect undisturbed. Who can say 

 quite as much of an English first-class carriage, if there 

 are two or three passengers on the opposite seats ? It is 

 true that part of this arises from the " stony British stare," 

 which foreigners and Americans find so strange and 

 so unpleasant. But "fix it how you will," you can 

 never feel quite so much at ease facing several persons, 

 as when all face the same way. On one very- 

 special occasion, in America, when I had to travel 

 in an ordinary car for several hours under circumstances 

 which would have made staring excusable enough (not to 

 make a mj-stery wliere there need be none, I was one of a 

 wedding pai'ty of two), I was struck by the careful courtesj' 

 with which a two-seat compartment seemed to be regarded 

 as if it were a private sitting-room. I never more 

 thoroughly recognised the innate courtesy of all Americans 

 towards ladies than I did on that occasion. Of course, 

 when travelling in an American car, a man may be ad- 

 dressed by a feilow-passengcr more freely than in England. 

 But it is easy to answer pleasantly ; and if the conversa- 

 tion wearies, either to close it or seek another place. 



Seventhly, all the carriages are well warmed, and 

 warmed quite safely. I speak without any prejudice in 

 favour of car-stoves ; for in a railway accident in Missouri 

 I made a much more intimatt> acquaintance with one than 

 I cared for, and shall carry the marks of the encounter to 

 the grave. But one cannot expect stoves to bihave well 

 when tlic car they are intended to warm is pitched over 

 an embankment thirty feet liigh. Under all the usual 

 conditions of travel, they are perfectly safe travelling 

 companions, and many a time and oft I have missed them 



