Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1856-06-04
Ummber 10.
" Three Days Later from Europe p
no NEWS OF THE PAcIFIclll

49,
Sucn has been the heading Of the foreign
news from week to week. The public has
hoped against hope. Memory has gone back
and called to mind vessels that have been
absent longer even than the Pacific and at
last returned to gladden. the heart. Memory
will not be cheated, however, and the black
list Of the President, the Arctic, the city Of
Glasgow, and alas how many more! were
TO be remembered.
Wholesale sacrifice Of human life has be-
come too common. Human life has fallen
in value fifty per cent below common mer-
chandise. So accustomed have W. become
to wholesale slaughter, that the heart has
grown hard, and We calmly resign ourselves
to such tragedies, coolly calling them dis
pensations Of an all-wise Providence, when,
il the facts were known and rightly apprecia-
ted, nearly all Of these sea tragedies would
be set down as the results of gross negli-
gence and fool-hardy rccklessness. We are
tired Of reading the b~lasphemies that call all
the accidents Of land and sea travel 1.-THE
mysterious ways Of God" when they are the
reckless ways &c fool-hardy conductors and
braggart ~sea-captains.
We all know how common i it is for passen-
gers. if they make a narrow escape, to vote
a resolution Of thanks c~ommendatory OF the
great qualities Of Captain Rusher as a man
up to his business, when the commentator
would not have been thought of had not
Captain Rusher came within an inch Of rush
ina all aboard into eternity by reckless'y
running his vessel at fourteen miles an hour
through a fog too thick to be seen. We
would not SEQ newspaper puffs of the skill
and rentlemauly bearing Of Conductor Col
%lission, if two trains did not come within a
few feet of pitching into each other. 1t is
the danger that the travelling public escapes
that il father to all such concentrations
Providence is denounced for so nearly de-
stroying a whole lot Of people, aud foolhardy
drunken captains and conductors are lauded
TO the skies for averting the catastrophe =
Let the ritual be changed denounce corpo-
rations. CAPTAINS and conductors for endan-
gering life, and thank God you are not killed +!
Now, if such things happened only once in
n lifetime, there would not be so much won
der. but every week we read Of lives destroy
ed on the great th%oroughfares of travel
Why call them "dispensations of Provi-
dence When God fixed the beautiful bow
in the heavens he promised that the earth
should no more be destroyed by water, and
vet thousands Of human skulls whiten the
green cells of the sea. Why should Provi'
dence make choice of railroad apparatus, as
the means. and travellers as the victims, fol
working out His mysterious ways?" Why
is not the thunderholt Of heaven more fire.
ouently used to proclaim the power and maj
esty of Jehovah
We have no disposition to croak or brew
discomfort in the minds Of timid people, bu'
we do say that both land and sea travel are
attended with danger. Carelessness ant
foolhardy recklcssuess are the causes OF thu
DANGER. The bump Of caution on the head
of'those who command, is entirely depressed
The loss of a hundred lives is not to be re
membered. We have seen enough to cor
vince us that other Norwalk bridges will b
left open, other New Jersey boats burned l
SIGHT Of shore, and q long, long list Of los
4rclics. Presidents aud, we may almost ado
Pacifes. " Three days later from Europe
no ne,cs oCMe Pacjfe! d"