The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-01-06 00:00:00

UNTHOUGHT-OF DANGERS.

As civilisation becomes more complex, and
the multitude of matters to which men have to 1
'attind grows still more numerous, it is inevitable
that things should daily be forced upon our
notice vihich had hitherto attracted but little
heed. Some new danger has to be met, some
fresh disease to be combated, some novel form
of accident to be averted ; and no sooner do we
breathe the more freely because of some ad-
ditional step in the direction of safety, than we
are called upon once more to resume the march
and still to press on towards the goal which,
ever apparently near, recedes from us a ith
every now invention and each fresh aid to cod:-
fort. This aspect of things has been recentl3
forced upon the attention of tne public by more
than one striking circumstance. Alarmists w,
always have with us, and the warnings of
Cassandras by profession are very apt to be
disregarded. But now and again incidents
occur which cannot be overlooked or put on one
side with an optimistic smile. During the
recent serious floods in England, more than one
railway bridge was swept away by the risen
torrent ; and the more recent fall of a mill
chimney at Bradford has called attention to
another sonrcegof danger which looms in our
midst. It is a sufficiently common remark
that people are not greatly dismajed by disasters
in which they are never likely to be concerned.
A famine in China or an earthquake in Peru
arouses but a languid interest among those who
dwell in England, and this because neither a
famine nor an earthquake is here to be antici-
pated. Even the most destructive of Colliery ,
catabtrophes, except when there are elements
of dramatic interest added to the accumulated
horrors, do not stimulate much excitement in
the breasts of the readers of newspapers. But
a railway accident, though not as fatal by a
twentieth part in its resu.ts as a huge colliery
explosion, awakes instant attention. It is a
casualty of a kind which may be brought home
to every one, and the discussions are eager as
tolthe best means of preventing its repetition.
So it is, and so it should be, with the other
forms of accident to which reference has bee!,
made. We have been so accustomed to think
of our railways as being the most perfectly built
in the world—and compared with those of the
United States, for instance, their superiority is
most marked—that it is with somewhat of a
shock that we hear of a bridge giving way. Yet
an instant's thought would teach us that this is
a contingency not altogether to be unlooked for.
Many of our lines have been in existence for
some thirty, forty, or even fifty years. During
that period repairs may have been many, but so
have the winter storms, the keen frosts, and
the rising floods. Without the most careful
supervision, a bridge may give way at any
moment of unusual streets; and, disquieting as
this reflection may be, it is better to face it
and to endeavour thenceforward to urge those
concerned to do their utmost to prevent a
catastrophe, than to ignore it and bitterly be-
wail the disaster when it comes. It is the same
with the huge factory-stacks, which are reared
in such numbers in all parts of manufacturing
England. Age has of necessity a tendency to
weaken them, and it cannot be too widely made
known that power is in the hands of the local
corporate authorities to take matters in their
own hands if the structures appear unsafe.
Disasters, great as they may seem, may in point
Ofd fact prove blesings in disguise if they
enforce upon all concerned—and that really
comprises every individual member of the body
politic—the necessity of doing all that in them
lies to prevent a repetition of catastrophes
which, though unlooked tor, ought not to be
considered inevitable.