The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-05-12
THE NORWALK MASSACRE, -


-, ,hs h,;as..keeper persists in saying "I. "
sas down. and he is susta'he' ', SIGNAL ;s
NJ ~;,nesses. The Herald So "" e.v
s,con,r;v.d athst il can only be seen ~. N
49,. ~ ,hs train approaches, and NOT at al,
se 80 -. .ns;oe has passed the station sha
a''e' '"e ,:"h Is only about two hundred 'eet
curve, ,.n II adds, San accidental move
"oA. - ,hs body, spark, or an atom oil SCOT,
-.;ah, blind the engineer tor moment ahu
.Ir. n,even, his seeing signal SO situated.
49,, ~ "a no excuse, however, for his driving
-. ,,,;n a, the rate of twenty miles an hour,
vben the law only allowed speed of eight
miles The same paper is terribly severe up.
on the directors, declaring that the placing OF
,h. signal in such situation that it could not
he seen. very nearly resembled malice atore
thought. 1t adds
owe have little to say TO the directors OF the
NJ, Haven Railroad. Before God and their
aonsc;ences they are morally answerabie tor
.ha massacre of foity.five human beings. The
;mperfec rions of our la VS. alone protect them
from, the punishment decreed against man
slaughter. We know that they will read these
lines with a smile, and will throw down the
paper with a pleasant laugh. They have I'M
brued their hands in no blood, and have done
nothing more than their friends, directors OF
other companies, or steamboat owners, nave
done over and over again with perfect ,thpuni
~. The law cannot reach them' anu, fe.1t
ling in their security, they VIII dismiss .ie
subject with no pang but the one winch tlie
fear Of diminished traffic may possible cause.
Forty.four deaths, through their negligence,
mismanag ement, or niggardliness, will not al.
f3ict them half so much as the prospect OF
losing as many dollars. Habit has made them
callous 10 newspaper attacks, and public exc
Grafton cannot affect the serenity OF their tenn
pers. A few weeks patience, and they know
that all will be forgotten"
The Herald gives fearful list OF railroad
and steamboat accidents which have occurred
since the first Of January last. The former
amount to thrty-seven, causing one hundred
and tweuty.three deaths, and infiicting serious
bodily injury on two hundred and eleven per-
sons, or nearly one death and two bodily inju-
ries day. OF the latter there have been nine,
causing two hundred and nine deaths, and fifty
severe injuries. The railroad deaths and in
iuries do not include persons falling from the
cars, or run over on the track: 1t says that
there are numberless railroads in the world
which do large business, and on which not
a single life has ever been lost. ave have
never" says the Herald, sin the whole course
of our experience, heard of a single accident
on railway which might not have been aver
ted by ordinary care, precauton and manages
ment." We subjon the causes to which it at.
tributes such catastrophes:
Accidents do occur and lives are lost be.
cause the directors and managers are lost to
every consideration bat that OF personal gam
Avarce prompts them TO employ inefficient
men, at low salaries, whose incapacity thrusts
a train into the water, or causes fatal COLI
sion. Avarice induces them to lay the rails
down in SO sharp curves that-as on the Hud
son River Railroad, the New Haven road, and
various others-the engineer cannot see more
than a few yards before him, and children, and
even men, who happen to be on the track,
cannot see an express train till 1t Is upon
them. Avarice forbids the repairing OF bridges
and vaducts-the Harlem bridge swings and
shakes as the cars roll over il, and will cont
nue. to do SO, until some day it breaks down
and forty or fifty lives are lost. Avarice sug-
gests the size of the windows in the cars, which
utterly precludes all hope of escape in case oil
$500
cause of all those miserable economies IN sa'
laries, stations, rails, grading, signals and cars
which directly occasion the loss OF one human
life each day.
"If we would effect a practical reform it i:
on the avarice of directors that we must work
Abuse they can Withstand, censure they laugt
at-but they will feel keeny an inroad upoi
their purse. Let US follow the example OF th'
Connecticut Legislature, and enact Law
<ahI rtrno CO. n
money-say $l0,000-for every life lost oil
their line, and railroad accidents would sool
be thing of the past. All other remedies ar
useless"
The plan here suggested is precisely sue
as we were in search of yesterday. Ther
could be nothing more effectual.
We are happy to believe that, here in Vii
ginia, at least, that recklessness of life attr
buted to the directors of railroads, does nc
exist. May we not hope that the late awfu
catastrophe may have its effect in exctin
them to redoubled cautionf May we not b
allowed to hope that such things as snak,
heads will be unheard of in future, and classe
only among the disagreeable things of tn
past, which the memory would fain get rid {
If it could?
Itappears that the engineer was moi, as wa
stated in some of the New York papers, an
represented by US, new hand, unacquainte
with the signal. He was an old and expe
rienced engineer. One account says he ha
been dismissed once before, from the sam
road, for running against train. Anothe
says he was ''rather distinguished for eau
tion," and had demonstrated SO strongly, onl
q few months before, against the mischieveu
instructions of conductor as to deserve the al
plause of his employers" The same accoul
says, ",he superintendent of the road is r.
garded as eminently safe and CAREFUL s
we suppose, after all, as is usual in such case
''nobody is to blame"
P. s. Since the above was in type, we ha,
received the New York Daily Times of II
10th. That paper says-"public opinion seen
to have settled pretty firmly upon the guilt
Dir. Edward Tucker, engineer. There is
decided disposition to concentrate the who
storm OF vengeance on his heal. The Coz
pany has no hesitation in offerilg him I'D as
scape.goa,. Mr.. Tucker may therefore
considered as fairly implicaed. He is dout