The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1864-11-18

OF our apathy, and even then che good effect
Is but momcntary, ard We 60 on our old way
again, as needless Of danger rs It Gre and
water had no power TO destroy. When two
locomotives dash into each other like q couple
Of mad bulls, and score or two OF living
breathing human beings are crushed ont OF all
scmblancC of humanity, we begin 10 think that
n double track would be proper and that, per
haps, railroad corporations ought to be, in
some measure at least, responsible for the
lvcs destroyed through the carale5,nrss or
incompetency OF their servants.
When a steamboat is blown to pieces, or
burned 10 the waters edge, we pass laws Tor
the better protection of travellers; and when
hotels are destroyed by Gre, and tho sleeping
inmates hurried into eternity without amy
warning save that aGoid,dSby the hisjing
! flames and atiAing smoke, IT, suddenly occurs
/ to our mind that most Of our hotels are, after
/ all, very insecure abodcs, and that something
| ought TO be done to lessen the danger attend
ing an hotel life.
Il is not often, even in America, that 80
| startling a calamity occurs as the burning Of
the Pacific Hotel in St. Louis, several years
ego; but If such occurrences contribute in any
| way TO teach us a wholesome lesson In regard
/ 10 the culpablc careessness we eyincc in
| building our hotels with such slender security
/ in case of fire, they will have served a useful
| end We Americans have a passion for
| mammoth" hotels. There Is scarcely city
in the Union which does not contain one or
more of these enormous piles, the passage
| ways Of which are as intricate as those of the
| Crc'an labyrinth, and the staircases most
miscrably disproportionate in number aud
size to the wants and safety Of The guests.
Travellers invariably patronzs the last and
largest monster caravan3lry which IS erected,
content to sleep at a iatiguing distance from
| terra jlrmd, rather than 60 to what they term
q 'second-class" hotel. A sudden alarm Of
fire arouses them, and he must indeed be a
cool and lucky man who can escape unharmed,
! The hotels of our fashionable watering places
are even more dangerous than those Of our
cities. Almost invariably built of wood which
the heat of summer parches into tinder and
filed by hundreds OF human beings, it seems
as if an especial inicrpositiOn of Divine PrOyi-
dence had thus lar prevented the occurrence
of some irightlul accident.
We are aware that it Is an almost hopeless
task to undertake to bring about a reform in
this matter. Legislative interference in such
matters Is never easy to obtain, and ii is only
such interference which can effect the desired
object. We do not object TO large hotels,
provided the means of egress are proportionate
to the size Of the building; but we most
strongly deprecate the criminal carelessness
to danger which shuts up five OF six hundred
souls in q collection of numbered cells, open
ing upon long, narrow corridors, from which
it is difficult to find ones way at any time,
and next to impossible when the mind is be-
wildered by the alarm and confusion incident
to q fire. That these evils can be remeded
is perfectly plain, and the architect who viii
first effect the reform will deserve to be hailed
as public benefactOr.