The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-23 00:00:00

RICH FAMILY MEN ON THE RAILWAYS.

The railway companies, if they are to be insurers,
may naturally ask at least to be told what it is they
are insuring. Is this the father of a family that they
see before them, or is it not ? Are they guarantee-
ing a bishop's venerable life, and all the prospects
of ecclesiastical emolument which his younger sons
and son-in-law naturally enjoy; or are they gua-
ranteeing simply a rural dean ? In carrying
Caesar, are they carrying Caesar and all his fortunes,
or are they carrying the fortunes of a dozen little
Caesars besides ? It is not fair that they should not
know all particulars about their travellers before-
hand. It is an awkward matter to have to carry
rich people who have children. There are some
Dukes so wealthy that they ought to go in Duke-
boxes by themselves. If Caractacus is sent by rail,
he has a special compartment for his peculiar use.
Everybody, from the engine-driver upwards, is
aware that the train which holds the horse that won
the Derby must not be trifled with. No similar
precautions are taken to preserve the precious life
of—let us say—ibhe Marquis of Westminster. He
walks in, purchases his ticket just like anybody
else; and' the company will never be a whit the
wiser until an accident happens in a tunnel, and the
shareholders have to pay for injuring a millionaire.
Surely ihe company have aright to complain of being
kept in the dark in this way. They would be glad to
put something additional on the ticket of so valuable
a passenger. If all was open and above board, the dis-
tinguished nobleman whose name we borrow for pur-
poses of illustration, would be obliged by law to say at
once to the superintendent of the station, "I am the
Marquis of Westminster ; I pay extra like a man :
and lamto be kept with care, edge upwards." It
might be the company's interest to give him a
special train with extra buffers. Sooner than have
anything like a really expensive accident, the Secre-
tary of the Board would, perhaps, prefer to go down
of the line himself, and attend to the switchesN on the dangerous part
over-
anxious even-in
Providing fcoarsewooufldoridtibnaereyasfyatthoebres
o f
athe
Englishman
littlei. orphans is extremely
family.
fnishman has a right to
expensive, and
sneak into a carriage in the mean disguise of a
bachelor who, by so
disga, lets the company in
begraelleable responsibility-
for an expensive and
doing,
a ticket who
clergyman
to show, or
Nobody, indeed, should
had not got his marriags sett
the
at least a certificate from
parish, to say that it would not make much of his
dif-
ference to anybody if he was killed. e much
Unless the
present system is reformed, it will be almost
possible for any married man of delicacy and
feeling to bring himself to enter a railway
car.
riage. He will always be reproaching himself that
he is exposing the !company to risk of which they
are not forewarned, and for which they have not
bargained. If they had known all, it would have
been their duty to tell off a porter to look after
him, to label him carefully, and to take him down
the line with caution and by the most punctual
trains.—London Review.

''ACCIDENT AT HUN GERFORD MARKET.—On
Saturday, whilst some workmen were employed in removing
some of the buildings for the Charing-cross Railway a por-
tico of the walls of the Old Music Hall gave way, and
buried three workmen and a boy beneath it. One, Michael
Sullivan, on being taken, out was quite dead. Jones and
Sampson, the two others, and the boy, whose name is not
known, were extricated alive, but so frightfully injured
that they lie in Charing7cross Hospital with but faint hopes
of recovery.