The Sun.
London, England, 1839-11-27 00:00:00

you can, sick to death for want of some trifling refresh-
ment. If the Directors would only allow a policeman's
wife to make tea and coffee, and sell it to the passengers
who are waiting for the train, they would willingly pay her
a good price for it, and she would make a better living
than her husband, and do much for public comfort,
and no harm to anybody. Again : suppose you leave town
too early for your usual dinner (and cannot force your-
self to eat for the sake of laying-in a stock against
hunger), and are either indisposed to burden yourself
with provisions—or you forget to provide them—or
dislike to take things which you will have to cat in
presence of the hungry eye--!s Of your fellow-passergers—
discomfort, and perhaps fineness and pain, are pretty
sure to supervene, by the time you are thirty or forty
miles on the road. You can get nothing. The train
may stop five minutes at a station, but nobody is
permitted to hand you a glass of ale and a biscuit;
even if such things were in readiness. The discern.
fort is not a necessary evil. There need be no de-
lays in this matter where the train stops five minutes,
and it is sheer perversity to attempt getting up a list
of difficulties against. so obviously easy a proceeding.
Let twopenny packets of biscuits or sandwiches be
in readiness, with age and a score or two of bail.
runt pots, and no elionee to be given ; then the fault
of no refreshment, at natural intervals, would rest
with those who forget to furnish themselves with
halfpence or fourpenny pieces, and who (lid not chease
to spend sixpence or a shilling in consequence of their
own remissness. As it is, there is no relief for
you. English habits are all against this forced absti-
nence. We have been too long accustomed to the means
of getting something during the five minutes employed
by the long stages in changing horses, not to feel this
new law of no-refreshment as a very great annoyance.
To those who are weak, or in bad health, it is a serious
consideration ; it is some consideration to every body.
When the Southampton Railway to Woking was first
opened, the Directors had a most capital dinner to ce-
lebrate the occasion, during which the steam was got up
with Champagne, and chine and turkeys added consi-
derably to the luggage of the returning convivialists.
Happening to read a most exhilarating account of this
in the newspapers, we imprudently fancied that Wok-
ing was a place where something eatable and a bed,
if desired, might be had for money. We went
down, intending to remain from Saturday after-
noon till Monday morning. On arriving we found the
place was a dreary common. Five or six passengers
on alighting srarted off to amuse themselves, as it ap-
peared, with a race on the common, to stretch their
legs and expand their animal gas. We soon afterwards
heard that there was a public house at a village about
a mile off, indicated by a steeple over the trees, and we
than understood the occasion of the race on the corn-
mon, which was evidently to secure all the beds. By
persevering in our inquiries we next ascertained the
locality of the village of Woking, which was
two miles distant. We tredged off accordingly.
There also the beds were all engaged by the officers
of the station. We had therefore to retrace the two
miles back to the station. As to refreshment here, we
might just as well have been sent upon an iceberg in the
North Pole. We were obliged to proceed to Kingston,
which is miles distant. It was a pretty trip of pleasure,
truly, all this! It is a fact that several tents had beep
pitched by httmano and intelligent epeeeletoee in vic-
tuals ; but such is the antipathy of the Directors to
other people eating and drinking, that all thee? tented
comfortera of the public had been driven away by a
threat to lay informations. Of course we were by this
time half-starved. Persevering in an inquiry of one of
the clerks as to where one could get a scrap of anything
to eet, he at length replied? withoet lifting hi§ eyed frenn
the paper whereon he %yea writing, that hri43 were
laid down to build en inn !"
HARDSHIPS or ii.4Tt,w4y 414.1TICg•eeeTile servants
of the railways are worked so many hours, and under
such circumstances, that they are much to be pitied, and
their ill-humour, in some cases, is pardonable accordingly,
They come early, and remain late t and ever; on Sun-
days' there is little relief for them. With those solitary
policemen who have to walk along the line of the road,
the life is monotonous and wearisome to the last degree,
owing to the length of time at a stretch which this duty
is required of them.• The hostility of the Directors, or
their agents, to eating, is equally displayed towards
their servants. If a policeman were seen tasting a
morsel of,onything he would be discharged. If his
wife were to bring him a SUrreptitioail cup of tea and
a slice of bread and butter he dare not take it, except
at extreme hazard of " the condign !" An adventurous
policeman, who was turned away for this crime (but is
now on the Croydon Railway), was accustomed n 0.%
and then to run the risk, and he has at times kept his
bread and butter secreted an hour and a half before he
could find an opportunity slily to pop it into his mouth.
But the villain was detected at last, and immediately
discharged. The Company always keep a week's salary
in hand, out of which they levy all the fines, and this
policeman was fined a day's pay according to the law
against his misdemeanour. We would submit it to the
directors and their agents, that the hard treatment of
their servants in this respect is one cause of their fre-
quent ill behaviour. They are made morose by hunger.
This is not necessary. They should be relieved at less
protracted intervals.
DANGER TO THE LUGGAGE.--Many persons hare
lost tliPir luggage in railway travelling, and it is at all
times in haward. Where it is only a moderate-sized
carpet-bag, an individual may carry it himself, and place
it under the seat of his carriage ; but if his luggage be
the usual quantity required for a long journey, it is
taken away and deposited out of sight of the travel-
ler among a miscellaneous heap, It would be very
easy to affix a card to the luggage with a mere mini-
tee on It, ind give a corresponding tielset to the pas-
senger, to be produced when ho took his luggage away.
By this means every body would be sure of his awn, and
no false claims could be made. This is done in the Bel-
reilweys,and it is the common practice in public places
in kriglAuti, ngt, lty the present tgrangernent the lug-
s
gage is liable to he claimed rind P4vrFerriedOff by persons
leaving at the stations along the line, fir even"by aegi.
dent or design at the end of the journey. Such' things
have occurred, sapid When important papers are lost (bon•
nets, caps, trinkets, ne matter what) the annoyance is
excessive, Surely this danger might be reinedintl:
DANGER OF TUB O,'gr c44lq4Ug6.—The open
carriages, when the wind does not bring the but ashen
into your face, are very pleasant on a warns day but iq
cold, wet, or windy weather, and throughout the whole
of the winter season, they are dreadful. This
is chiefly owing to the bleak and patting
drafts, which howl and whistle through them. The
discomfort—to use the most moderate expression—is
felt at its utmost by those who sit with their faces towards
the engine. Why are not all the carriages made in a way
to protect the public from the wind and rain ? We
are afraid we must assign the cause—until a better rea-
son be given—to the not very generous purpose of com-
pelling all passengers who can afford it, or whose health
renders it imperative, to travel in the more expensive
carriages. The plan is successful, but is effected by
perilling and often materially injuring the health of all
those of delicate constitution, or already invalids, who
cannot afford to pay (though sometimes they are cam.
pelled, when there are none of the third cliss) for the
e.t.a and Second class carriages, to the filling of which
they are consequently made the sacrifices. Even the
stronger passengers are made uncomfortable, and con-
tinually catch dangerous colds from the drafts rush-
teeeuefi the open carriages. Now, if this be done
from the utettvee suggested, we can only say that it is
bad policy. We beg io call the attention of the Di-
rectors to the fact that this bad policy limits the event
ct eeikey travelling in a very great degree. Nobody
of humble means will travel in bad weather by the rail-
roads, except from neeessity, The numerical amount
of travellers is circumscribed by this compulsory ex-
pense. just as in the case of lettere by the general post
end the efPcts of the reduction of the duty will furnish
a good teat of the expediency of the change proposed
by the D:rectors. At present the Companies low by
their policy in the long run. There is no objection to
arm class of carriages being made as much more luxu-
rious and splendid than the rest as possible, but all of
them ought to be so constructed as Put 41 injure health
or endanger life.

RAILWAY BOARD LEGISLATION.—The
Acts 141 mot always contain a clause giving power to
the Directors to make rules and regulations for their
servants—and the public. Penalties are fixed for the
eniurcement of these rules, not exceeding five pounds.
This ro ►y ha all very good, and practical legislation as
regards the officers and servants of the Company,
and the means of levying the fines are already in
the hands of the authorities in the shape of a
week's arrears of wages, or more, as it may hap-
pen. But how the fines are to be obtained from
the offending public we do not so clearly perceive.
The Directors of the Great Western institute a law, that
if any individual travel on their railway without pur-
chasing a ticket, he may be fined five pounds. In
other words, the individual who attempts to get his
passage without paying the fare shall be punished by
having to pay five pounds instead. This seems rather
dictatorial, and certainly very amusing ; but is it fair to
the vast majority of the public who honestly "pay their
way ?" Suppose you lose your ticket !—this has often
occurred with people who very honestly pay for it, and
often must occur. What is the consequence ? The
Company may accuse you of the violation of this law,
and demand five pounds. How are they to distinguish
between the man who has lost his ticket and the man
who never had one ?

SHOCKING ACCIDENT.—EarIy on Tuesday
morning week. two colliers and a boy came to the new
pit at Stavely Woodthorpe, noar Chesterfield, In order
to proceed to work. The poor fellows, observing the
corve suspended over the shaft, thought it was ready
for them to get in and go down ; but the rope being
what is termed « out of gear," they were precipitated
to the bottom, a depth of 270 feet, and the rope being
loose fell down upon them. One man had his leg
broken in wo places ; the other a leg and an arm ; the
boy was also injured in an e9ually serious manner. From
tho dreafifi4l 07 they iqe smashed, it is hardly expected
they can recover.--o4cager