The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-04
THE RIVER OF DEATH.

lIlE III LII OE LIZA
From the Cleveland Lsader. s7 -
We have waited patiently, but vainly, since
Saturday, to find stated some excuse or rea-
son for the fearful explosion on the Misss-
sippi river, by which the steamer w. r.
Arthur was destroyed and eighty human lives
sacrificed. No explanation has been given;
none is probably regarded necessary. The
engineer on duty at the time says that the
steam gauge showed pressure of only one
hundred and eighteen pounds moment
before the explosion, and that the licensed
limit of the boilers was one hundred and
twenty-six pounds. He is, moreover, GER
tain that there was plenty of water in the
boilers, and that there was no good cause why
they should have burst.
They did burst, however-there are the
eighty charred and ruangled corpses to show
for it-and with all due respect to this engi-
neer, the people of the country would like to
know something more about who and what is
to blame for the constantly recurring calami-
ties that have made the very word Mississippi
q name of terror throughout the North. We
are told, in the first place, that it is point of
absolute necessity that the Western river
steamers should carry high pressure engines.
They are required to make head against
strong currents, and need immense power.
Their bulls are bread and shallow, and not
adapted to carrying the heavy condensers and
other fixtures that are included in low pres
sure engines. Their paddle, wheels must
work Independently of each other, and this is
fatal to the low pressure beam engines, so
universally used in the lake and ocean marine
Granted, then, that the river boats must
carry from eighty to q hundred and thirty
pounds of steam to the inch, cannot boilers
be made strong enough to stand that strain
Cannot inspectors be found brave enough to
condemn boats and boilers when they become
mere death traps for human beings At least
cannot regulations be made, and enforced,
which will oblige steamboat owners to pro-
vide ample boats and life preservers to save
every passenger they carry? In the case of
the Arthur, last week, there was but one
life-boat on board. Five hulking miscreants
got into it, rowed ashore, and turned the
boat adrift. Had the steamer carried half
dozen large yawls, not twenty lives need have
been lost. If the owners of the lost steamer
were now brought into court and made to
pay $4,000 each for the eighty lives just sacri-
feed to their carelessness and avarice, it is
more than probable that the next steamboat
they run would go out with sound boilers and
abundant fixtures for preserving life from
drowning. There is no need or sense
in mincing this matter. Steamboat
owners are public carriers; they take
the money of their passengers and
agree to transport them in comfort and
safety. If they fail to do this through their
greed to make money, they should be held
strictly responsible. If they have no other
conscience, their pockets are still as sensi-
tive as those of other men. Congress can
and should make immediate laws to cover all
these cases. 1t would seem that the cataclysm
of slaughter which has been seen from Cairo
to New Orleans during the last month is a
direct appeal to Washington for an enactment
of this kind. Will Congress heed the
warming?