The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-03-19 00:00:00

RAILWAY DISASTER IN

ICA,. 1 THE MITE OF rEELAND.

A serious disaGter occurred near Jamaica Plain, on
the Dedham Branch of the Boston and Providence
Railroad, on Monday morning. The track there
crosses the street by abridge 150 feet long and from
50 to 60 feet high. The train was composed of eight
cars, which were crowded with labourers and pupils
going to Boston. Three cars had crossed the bridge
safely when the entire bridge collapsed. The roof
of the fourth car was shaved off, and the remainder
fell with the bridge, the other cars fcllowing. The
wreck could not have been more complete. What-
ever reached the ground unbroken was smashed by
the weight of the car next falling. The momentum
carrild the cars clear across the roadway to the side
opposite. Many were killed outright, and still wore
badly injured. Heads and limbs were in ,ome cases
torn off, and where the bodies had become entangled
with the debris they were often mangled beyond re-
cognition. The shattered ears caught fire, but this was
happily soon extinguished by the Fire Brigade, who
had a station near the spot. Seventy-seven persons
were hurt, thirty-two died almost immediately, and
others were fatally injured. A heavier and faster
train crossed the bridge safely just before the disaster.
It is conjectured that some portions of the running
gear must have broken, and thus thrown the cars off
the line.

It was aicertained on Tuesday that more than 40
persons have been killed in the accident on the Boston
and Providence Railway, and that more than 100
others have been injured, some very seriously. Thirty-
nine bodies had been identified on Tuesday morning.

The nines Dublin correspondent, writing on Tues-
day night, said: The aiders and abetters of crime and
disorder, who keep the fire of popular excitement ever
burning, and care not what social and moral ruin it
may cause, are beginning to show some symptoms of
apprehension as the time approaches when the Govern-
ment must strike a decisive blow for lawful authority
and personal liberty, too long outraged with impunity.
They see that an amendment of legal procedure which
will relieve the Executive from technical trammels
Is inevitable, that all the resistance which an unscru-
pulous use of the privileges of Parliament has erabled
them to offer will at length be broken down, and the
full power of the law will be put forth to protect the
Queen's subjects who obey it and to repress
anarchy. Having sashed the passions of the
people to a pitch of reckless fury closely verging
upon open rebellion, having familiarised thein,
with the idea of such a contingency while
training them by acts of violence upon a small scale,
in strict accordance with the advice of John Mitchell,
to risk a greater struggle if a favourable opportunity
should occur, they now pretend with singular effron-
tery that the country is a model of tranquility, and
that those who even faintly picture its condition are
libelling the people. In the face of the judicial
statement founded upon official evidence which are
made in the Assize Courts, and the warnings conveyed
to the Government in resolutions of the grand juries
in several counties, they dare to represent to the
British public that there is no need of repressive
measures. Such atrocious crimes as the cold-blooded ,
murder of Byers, the caretaker, Murphy, the bailiff,
and others, the moonlight outrages, raids for arms,
acts of violence sparing neither age tor sex, such
as Mr. Justice Johnson commented upon on
Monday in his charge to the grand jury at
Cork, all the savage deeds which show the law-
lessness And terrorism i that prevail in certain
districts, are either ignored altogether by the
agitators, who still add fuel to the spirit which pro-
duces them or allude to them in a few formal words
as regrettable incidents. Such a malicious act he the
destruction of the memorial windows in the church at
Athos», county Limerick, which were put up in honour
of the late Archdeacon Goold, who had national sym-
pathies and was kind and generous, as his family have
all been, is made light of as as the breaking of a few
panes of glass by some drunken lads. The places in
which the Queen's writ cannot be served, where public
officers as well as platform orators and their followers
treat it cstentiously with contempt and offer violent
resistance to those who are intrusted with the execu-
tion of it, where mobs assemble and beat back the
police with stones, such places are mildly admitted to
be "unsettled," and the blame of it is cast, not upon
the agitators who have excited the people, but the
landlords who are defrauded by their unwarrantable
interference.
The evidence given in the report of the Cowper
Commission will enable the public to judge what is
the true cause of the "unsettled "state of those dis-
tricts. There is no improvement since that evidence
was given. The following extract from a letter re-
ceived to-day from a tenant in a southern county
shows how great is the intimidation :
"I hope to send you cheque before—. I must
request of you, when you get my cheque, to consider
it in confidence, as since— has been put out the feel-
ing about here is very bad, and were it to come out I
paid fire or "cattle-killing would be my lot. Talk of
law or protection, there is none now. I call it re-
bellion, not open as yet, but like a fire in the hold of a
ship it is smouldering and will burst out by and by
with tenfold vigour. Better had it come to blows
long ago. I will be in Dublin—, and may be it
would be better to pay you in cash, as bank clerks, I
fear, at least some of them, are in the swim."

•
Another tenant, writing from the county Water-
ford, says:
"The Land Leaguers are getting troublesome down
about here. They had a large meeting in Kilt:nee-
thomas yesterday. and it was said they were not to
pay rent or taxes any more, and at -- they are
making the most of their time, having meetings every
Sunday, so it will be hard to get rent next time if the
Government do not interfere with them very coon."
Such communications as these, which are fre-
quently received by landlords and agents, give an
insight into the condition of the country and the
causes of it. So far from being exaggerated, as the
agitators report, the accounts which appear in tne
press give but a very imperfect idea of the state to
which it is reduced, and the mischief is spreading
into districts which were hitherto quiet and orderly.