Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-07-13
A STORY WITH A MORAL.
New England Curiosity and SOUTH
ern Charity
From the sgauv yorl- uo-oI5

New England Curiosity and South
ern Charity
From the New York Herald.
The paragraph in your paper of this
morning, from Greenfield journal, which
recites the shocking circumstances at
tendant upon recent railway disaster on
the Rutland road; hardly does full Justice
to the subject Permit me to state On
the best authority sundry facts which mt
in a still clearer relief the inhumanity and
the ignorance of the region in which this
calamity occurred. TT.
The gentleman killed, Mr.. Alfred Field,
was one of the first engineers in New
England, man holding several positions
of great responsibility. The wife of
MIR. Field went at once to the scene of
the accident, and it is from gentleman
who was present when she arrived that
have my Information as to the state in
which she found her unfortunate hus-
band. 1t was then the second day after
the accident. Absolutely nothing had
been done for the sufferers. The railroad
company had provided neither surgical
aid nor comforts nor succor of any kind.
Those whom the carelessness of its sery-
ants had struck down it left to die where
they lay like dogs. .
- The place where the disaster occurred
is near to populous towns and well-to-do
communities. These sent forth crowds
of curious and inquisitiVe spectators to
the scene of blood, but not one charita
bic soul The people came from miles to
gaze on the exciting show of human
agony, but they brought with them neither
oil nor balm to heal the wounds of the
sufferers. When Mr.. Field lay dying, a
man had to be stationed before his door
to keep these people from pressing in to
stare and cape about his couch. And
this in moral and pious New England, the
home of Mrs. Stowe, who gropes in dead
mems graves to surprise some guilty Sc
cret; the home of Wendell Phillips and
of Sumner, who could not sleep in their
beds TIL slavery had been stamped out in |
blood!
], who listened TO this shameful story,
could not but remember the very different
scene of which was an eyewitness, last
February, in the ''rebel" State of Missis-
sippi. was travelling on the Mississippi
Central Railroad, to New Orleans. Near
Oxford, in Mississippi, the train just
preceding ours had run off the track and
plunged through the trestle of the road.
Some twenty persons had been killed or
wounded. The district was poor enough.
1t had never, suppose, been rich, but it
had been thoroughly hsrried by the SOL
dieTy of Grant and Sherman, and it is
none the better, as you may suppose, for
their visitations. The nearest house was
several miles away. But in few hours
after the accident occurred the
woods were alive with people has
tening, not to gaze, but to save.
l saw wagons with mattresses and beds
enough to move twice the number hurt,
sent up 10 carry the sufferers to the homes
of the nearest planters. Wines, spirits, |
and food were sent in quantities. The
next morning the railroad company had
fresh train brought up from distance of |
nearly one hundred miles, and when we
reached station where food was obtain |
able, the detained passengers were fed at
the cost of the company.
Now that it is still the fashion in some |
quarters to revile our Southern fellow |
citizens as the most hardhearted and in |
human of mortals, think it may possibly |
do good to lay before the public this sim
pie but expressive contrast between the |
Phsrisees and the Samaritaus.
NEW YORK, June 25, 1870