The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-19 00:00:00

SHOCKING ACCIDENT.

A sad accident, which resulted in the loss of two lives
and the destruction of a good deal of valuable property,
occurred on Monday on the Great Northern Railway.
At half-past eleven o'clock in the forenoon a coal train,
consisting of an engine and twenty trucks, belong-
ing- to the North London Railway Company, pro-
ceeded down the line at a rapid rate, until they reached
the shifting points near the Copenhagen tunnel,
Caledonian-road. At that time a dense fog prevailed, and
the engine-driver of the coal train, a man named James
Charles Ellis, could not perceive that the railway signals
were at " Danger" or " Stop," and he did not shut off his
steam and stop his engine. A special train was coming
from King's cross station. Any goods train coming would
meet it as it was coming through the Copenhagen tunnel.
When the signals are placed at " Stop " the points or
metals which lead on to a goods siding are opened, and by
this means trains are run off the main line to a temporary
resting place. At the end of the siding, and adjoining one
of the abutments of the Copenhagen tunnel, there has been
placed a pair of spring buffers, for the purpose of reduc-
ing the strength of the shock which must necessarily
result to a train when it is brought to a
standstill. When the engine - driver of the coal
train failed, in consequence of the fog, to perceive the
danger signal, and therefore did not n.-,tice that the points
had been opened, he proceeded at full speed until he was
carried into the siding. The engine, which was going at
the rate of twenty miles per hour, dashed against the tem-
porary buffers, and shattered them to pieces. The engine
was broken into fragments, and the brick wall, which is
20ft. in thickness, was considerably injured. A truck
which was laden with coals, and was immediately behind
the engine, was lifted off the metals, and raised
in the air, and fell upon the injured engine. The nineteen
other trucks were thrown off the metals. Inspector Odell
and a large body of police soon arrived upon the spot. In
three hours' time they extricated the bodies of two men,
who were afterwards ascertained to be the engine-
driver and the stoker, dreadfully mutilated. The driver
was a man ramed James C. Ellis, and he was 35 years of
age. He is the father of five children. The stoker is
William Skells, and he is 35 years of age, and leaves a
wife and five children. The guard of the train, a man
named John Fry, living at Grove-street, Bromley, when
he saw the impending collision, leaped from his break-van
on to the gravel, and thus escaped death. A few minutes
after the destruction of the coal train the special train
from Holloway, for the passage of which the points had
been opened and the danger signal put on, came out from
the tunnel.

Mr. Robert Baynes Armstrong, QC., formerly
one of the Parliamentary rerreser tatives for the borough
Lancaster, and for many years recorder of Manchester aue
Bolton, died in London on Thursday night, in his 84th
year.
A CONCERT WITH A VENGEANCE.—Mr, P. S.
Gilmore, the famous band-leader of Boston, is deep in the
preparation of a monster vocal and instrumental conceri.
that shall eclipse all the former efforts of the world it
a musical way. It is to take place 011 Boston Common,
in June next, and will consist of an orchestra of one
thousand instruments, the choruses to be given by ten thou•
sand selected vocalists from all parts of the country. The
choruses are to be supported by the basso of artillery,
discharged by electricity. Mr. Gilmore has alread3
secured 1,500 subscribers at 100 dollars each, and is bus 3
in securing members of the orchestra and chorus. Hints
of this have been given by the -Boston press, but we gel
these facts from a gentleman who is well infornjed as tc
what is going on in musical circics.--Portiand Ad 1-•,,rtiscr.
Jan. 2.

btronTANcE- or SLEEP.-1. Those who think
most, who do most brain work, require most sleep. 2. Time
saved from necessary sleep is infallibly destructive to mind,
b )dy, and estate. 3. Give yourself, your children, your ser-
vants—give all that aro under you the fullest amount of
sleep they will take, by compelling them to go tobed at some
regular early hour, and to riso in the morning the moment
they awake; and within a fortnight, nature, with a'most
the regularity of the rising sun, will unloose the bonds of
sleep the moment enough repose has been secured for
the wants of the system. This is the only safe and
sufficient rule ; and as to the question how much sleep
anyone requires, each must be a rule for himself ; great
Nature will nev,r fail to write it out to the observer under
the regulations just given.—Dr. Spicer.