The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-05-08

resent In any language we could employ, the
Mortified indignation of the whole community,
evoked by the dreadful massacre which was
consummated two days since on the line of the
New Haven Railroad. That deplorable event
has not only brought desolation and woe home
to the hearts of thousands, but it has extended
its saddening influence throughout the entire
community. The instantaneous sacrifice OF
nearly half hundred Of individuals-the large
majority Of them in the full exercise OF their
powers of usefulness in the various walks OF
life-would be enough, under any circum-
stances to send thrill Of dismay into the
feelings of the most indurated; but when that
| fearful destruction of human life was caused,
not by q visitation of Providence - not
through an accident which could not have
been foreseen or guarded against, but through
the ignorance. the stupidity, or the reck-
lessness of railroad employees, and the self
satisfied obtusiveness Of railroad directors
then dismay and grief are, as they have been in
make itself heard and felt throughout the
length and breadth of the land.
The details of this melancholy catastrophe
the public are already too familiar with There
are no contradictory reports given of its cause.
The fact stands out in all its horrid nakedness,
that the engine driver, to whom the railroad
company had surrendered up the lives of all
| who had taken passage in the Inflated train,
! was an ignorant and incompetent person; that
| he was SO ignorant of the regulations
established on the route, that he did not even
know the signals employed on it, 1t has been
stated-and has not admitted Of q contradic-
| tion-that instead Of slackening speed in passing
through the village Of Norwalk, and instead of
approaching the curve, and the drawbridge just
beyond that place. at such moderate rate of
speed that he could have instantly checked the
progress of the train, the engine driver as if in
spired by some Rend. disregarded the signal
| which warned him that the drawbridge was
open-disregarded the ordinance as to slacken-
| ing speed--and drove on at the maximum We
locity Of what the engine was capable. Nor
did he recognise the imminency of the peril I'M
til the train reached the bridge when the mo-
mentum it had attained Knocked all human
power to stop its progress. The locomotive, as
| if it were rational animal, strove in vain to
clear the empty space and striking against the
opposite abutment, was precipitated into
| the gulf beneath, and buried itself, seething
| and kissing, forever from the sight of
man, carrying along with it three cars, freighted
with human souls, who, even before they could
| have uttered one single scream of terror, were
swallowed up in eternal night.
The picture is too terrible to recall or dwell
upon. In an instant passed from the career of
life the noble, the good, the beautiful, the in
nocent-in an instant the arrow of bsreave-
ment pierced the hearts Of thousands, fated to
mourn forever the terrible event Of that inaus-
picious day. Men, in all the conscious pride Of
manhood, whose future appeared fraught with
happiness and utility, and many of whom
seemed destined to confer blessings on the race,
and women in the bloom of youth and beauty,
among whom one wore the bridal flowers
which but the previous day she had put on,
and innocent, prattling, unthinking childhood,
were all alike consigned to undistinguished
destruction Forty-fve beings in all had in
moment, in the twinkling Of an eye, their lamp
of life pitilessly extinguished. They are gone;
but the memory of that dreadful day dieth not,
and cannot die in the breasts Of those who were
witnesses to the scene, or to whom its results
have brought mourning and desolatioa. In the
bitterness Of their grief there may be no room
for thought or desire Of vengeance; but public
opinion cannot be so appeased, and will live and
will act until retribution is exacted from the
guilty.
And who are theys Not SO much the igno-
IL
mediate cause of the calamity, but those who,
aware Of his character, had the audacious
hardihood to consign to his care the train
which carried freight Of human beings. The
managers or directors Of this railroad had two
years before, discharged from their employ this
| very man, for having, through like inattention
caused another serious accident on the same
| road and still, so little regard had they for
the safety Of the travelling public that on his
return from California they had no hesitation
in restoring him to that position in which he
was SO soon to give such terrible proof of his
unftness for its responsible duties They, and
not he. are the culprits on whom should fall the
indignation of the public and the severest pun
ishment Of the law. They should be, and we
hope will be, taught, that in assuming the ma
nagement of railroad, their measures and
views must not be solely restricted to the one
idea # increasing the dividends of the COM
pany, but that they are bound, in the first and
chiefest degree, to consult the wants, the con-
venience, and above all, the safety of the pub
| lie.
But we fear that legislation is not wholly
exempt from some of the blame which such ter
nble catastrophies cause to fall somewhere.
We think that intelligent men, sincerely anxious
to promote the public welfare, could devise
some means of subduing the ravages of those
errible twin destrsysrs ofhuman life-the rail-
road and the steamboat. But legislation has