The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-05-02


tempts of Kossuth, Mazzn and Ledru Rollin
However we might desire to see it accomplish
such result we by no means relish the turn
it has taken in this quarter Of the American con-
tnent Who does?
THE PERKS OF TRAvELIING.-It would really
seem that the dangers to life and limb. which
ought now to form the most serious item in the
calculations Of the traveller in the United States
increase in regular arithmetical progression,
and pari passu, with the Developments oftrade.
commerce. and general resources. Our rela-
tons with California and the States Of the Pa
cifc are bound closer from month to month;
but just in like proportion with the in
crease of trade and prosperity comes the appal-
ing contra of the sacrifice of human life. The
States Of the Union are linked into more imme-
date connection by those innumerable rail
road arteries through which flow trade and
travel-the life of the body social; but for this
we pay the fearful equivalent of having terrible
casualties by the way multiplied in a like ratio.
The evil and the good seem to keep their rela-
tive proportions and it is matter of doubt which
preponderates in our scale Of developement
How seldom does steamer bring US from the
States of the Pacific the golden treasures
which California yields SO unsparingly, with
out also bringing US news of the occur
renee of some dreadful steamship calamity,
involving a serious loss of human life! Month
after month the details Of this and that
casualty fill the columns of the newspapers,
and the last always outswells and absorbs
the previous ones as the serpent Of Moses swal-
lowed up all the other monsters Of the Egyptian
necromancers The last and most terrible of
these disasters which has yet reached us is that
Of the destruction of the steamship Indepen-
dence off the island of Margarita in the Pacific
ocean, on the 10th Of February, by which some
hundred and fifty persons were sacrificed either
by fire or water. Legal inquiries are insti-
tuted, apparently resolute and sincere efforts
are commenced, with the object Of Furnishing
the reckless or ignorant authors Of the calamity;
hut in the meantime, and pending the laws de-
lays. some new calamity. Of a like nature, and
perhaps transcending it in horror, may occur
the public mind becomes careless and oblivous
of the past-the prosecution ends in sort Of
mock trial. and acquitted. and the culprits are
again sent forth, as careful and trustworthy
men, to be placed, it may be, in position to
enact the tragedy over again.
And what is true of the destruction Of human
life by steamboats, on ocean and river, applies
equally to it's kindred Moloch the railroad,
only that on the former the casualties are rarer,
though on a much more magnifed scale. and
that, on the latter, the victims are daily sacri-
iced-singly. in twos. threes, dozens. or
scores. For the past few days the journals
have recorded details of the terrible acct
dent which occurred on the Chicago Railroad
on Tuesday last, whereby some twenty persons,
men, women and children were killed, and fifty
more or less dangerously injured. We have
already given full report of the inquest and
the verdict from the Coroner's Jury, from
which it will be seen that the conductors and
engineers of the two colliding trains are
charged with and held to answer for. the crime
Of having. by their gross negligence and care
leseness caused this dreadful destruction of life
There does not seem to be single palliative
circumstance in this case. The only difficulty
is to discover how the collision could possibly
have taken place unintentionally. The two
lines of railroad-the Southern and Michigan
Central-intersect at right angles on an extern
sive prairie or marsh. where there is not bush
or tree for miles around. to obstruct the sight
and the night of the occurrence was bright
moonlight. And it is also stated that the dead
and dying were left on the roadside for four
hours before arrangements were made to bring
them into Chicago, distance of only eight
miles. If this be 80, it aggravates the crime,
and renders those companies and their servants
fit subjects for the severest punishment which
the law can inlict upon them.
This casualty however, only proves more
conclusively how wrong improper and danger
ous it is to have two or more lines intersect on
the same level. No charter should be given to
any company whose projected line would cross
that of any other, without compelling them to
alter the grade SO as to run the road by means
of viaduct over the other, or by means of
tunnel under it. And in this case, in Michigan
it is stated that one OF the companies actually
proposed such a measure to the other, for their
mutual benefit; but the offer was refused, and
the negotiations broken of. VIII this calamity
have thu effect upon all State Legislatures, to
make them for the future refuse charters for
railroads projected to intersect one or more al
ready in operation, until at least the companies
make proper arrangements. by difference oflevel,
to avoid such disasters as that Of Chicago