The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-12-10 00:00:00

TAB PIRII dE THE RAILWAY CAR.

RAILWAY travelling is attended with many
dangers under the system of management adopted
in this country. Apart from the perils arising
from imperfections of the perbiaiient iibay oi• ii
tli~ rolling stock=froin 'collisions; or froth any
Other ekter4iai Canses=the occUp'ants of railway
trains Are subject to another class of risks, attri-
biltai3le to the present defective arrangeMents for
regulating the conduct of the Passengers. All
Cla.iseS of passengers are more or less liable to
the annoyances and hazards consequent on occu-
pying seats in compartments open to all comers,
but none more so than • young or delicate ladies
travelling alone. At this season of the year this
evil is, perhaps, More genbraily felt than at any
other, froin the tact that 'daylight is so brief; and
it happens, UnfortnnatelY, that as the Christmas
holidays approach this unprotected class of
railway travellers is unusually numerous,
in consequence of the breaking up of the
schools and the return of lady pupils and
teachers to spend the festive season with
their friends and relations. Even first-
class passengers can rarely select their corn-
pagnew de voyao throughout the whole of a long
journey. The probability of encountering dis-
agreeable or dangerous cornpany May be greater
in second-class, and greatest in the third, but we
have heard even this denied with some appearance
of reason. The case may be to some small extent
provided for by running a carriage or compart-
ment for ladies alone; but it is easy to see how
that safeguard might be abused, and thus only
aggravate the evil. With every precaution to
secure freedom from annoyance in any part of the
train, it is certain that when once the train is
in motion it is too late to discover, as is too
frequently the case, that the immediately adjoin-
ing passenger is an improper or dangerous person.
All risks must then be run, and all consequences
of the mistake must then be endured, until the
train arrive at the next halt; and even then the
chances are all in favour of the offender's escape
before the guard's attention can be brought to
bear on the subject of complaint. This grievous
and perilous state of matters can never be
remedied until some mode is adopted whereby
every passenger in the train shall have it in his
or her power to effect instant, easy, certain, and
complete communication with the guard in charge
of the train while in full motion.

A fearful illustration of the horrors that may
be perpetrated under the present method has
been afforded by the cruel fate of M. POINSOT,
President of the Imperial Court of Paris,—a very
eminent man,—showing that the French cliemins
defer are liable to this objection as much as our own.
The deceased entered an empty first-class carriage.
He was subsequently joined by a stranger. It
was night. The stranger drew down the window
blinds. Thus completely isolated and alone with
his victim, he deliberately proceeded to murder
and rob the worthy magistrate. The bloody
outrage having been accomplished, the murderer
Unfastened the door, and, as the train gradually
slowed to receive the mail bags at Noisy, stepped
safely out, and marched off with his booty unde-
tected. It was not not until after the assassin
had had ample opportunity to conceal himself,
that the slaughtered corpse of M. POINSOT was
discovered by the ticket-collector lying bathed
in blood in the bottom of the carriage. 'the
other details, as given in our Paris Corres-
pondent's letters, clearly bear out the infer-
ence that, had any means of instantly calling for
aid been available to M. POINSOT, either his life
would have been saved, or, at all events, the mur-
derer might have been caught red-hall-hied. Now,
although this may be a case of unusual atrocity,
and one which we would not willingly look upon
as likely to happen often, yet it serves to show
the full extent of mischief -which attaches itself
to the terribly unprotected and utterly helpless
condition to which railway directors consign their
customers. Granting that the case cited is an
extreme one, and that it has had no parallel,
perhaps, in this country, yet what has been on the
one side of the Channel may be on the other, seeing
that there is the same defect in the systems of both.
Moreover, apart from such extreme cases, is it
not within the knowledge of every observant
traveller by rail that respectable people of both
sexes are continually subjected to disturbance,
annoyances, and affronts, to say nothing of more
serious insults and assaults, to which they would
not be liable were the guard in constant commu-
nication with every compartment ? With re-
ference to this minor class of misdemeanours, so
far as male passengers are concerned, we don't
think it necessary to say much, seeing that they
are or ought to be able to take care of themselves.
The " Sam Wellers" may suffer from being locked
up with " widders," and the " pigeons" may be
plucked by the " sharpers"—but in the meantime
we must pass them by. It is quite otherwise with
the female passengers travelling singly. No
doubt it is due to the rougher sex to state that
for the most part they are gallantly disposed to
show every proper attention and respect to " the
unprotected female," but there are brutes in the
shape of men who frequently travel on the