New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-08-29
THE PERKS or TRAVFL.

Within a few weeks the people of the United
States have been Mortified, again and again,
by series of bloody doings which scarcely
have a parallel in the history of the country.
These have not been deliberate and willful
murders upon the highway, nor secret assassi-
nations by bands of sworn conspirators, nor
the result of sudden outbursts of anger, nor
wholesale pOsOnings by cunning lunatics.
People travelling by sea or land, in pursuit of
lawful business enterprise or on pleasure bent,
have been hurried out of life by means more
speedy than the murderer's knife or the knotted
moose of the Thug. In New-York Bay, ferry
boat, crowded with passengers, was blown up
by an internal explosion. On Chautauqua
Lake another party was suddenly hurled into
the air by just such another explosion, the
killed and wounded being few in number only
because the company was small. In Mobile
Bay a pleasure steamer was suddenly rent
with the conclusion of bursting boiler, and
sixty or seventy persons were either instantly
killed or horribly wounded. A small tug-bOat,
plying in New-York Harbor, had its paper
shell boiler torn asunder by pres
sure of steam, killing the engineer.
An eastern bound train out Of BOs-
ton, lesurey feeling its way along
was Overtaken by laundering express train,
which plunged into it5 rear, scattering fire.
brands, steam, and death through the with
ing mass of humanity before it. A mail train
on the Philadelphia and Erie Railway, bound
west, rushed upon an eastward bound freight
train, killing and wOunding some twenty per-
sons. In what dreadful colors shall we paint
II. NNbn hoo 20
think of the pangs, the wounds and death
which have been crowded into all these occur
rences How many lives have gone out with
a sudden gasp, and what a train of woe and
lamentaton has filed all the land as the
hundreds of graves have closed and are to-day
closing over the poor victims
Men are asking if it is safe to trust ones
| life to the keeping of these common carriers
| when 80 many persons have suddenly been slain
| within so short period. Is this all the result
| of blind chance, which has happened to crowd
| six deadly disasters into single month Or
| is it caused by wicked recklessness of the
| lives of passengers Life is to-day less
| secure, apparently, by rail or steamboat, than
| twenty years ago, Notwithstanding science and
| ingenuity have done so much to guard against
every possible or imaginable danger by sea
and land. Who is responsible for this
| In every one of the cases which we have
cited 1t is possible to trace the killing Of the
passengers directly TO the persons who were
then and there responsible for their safe car
rage. 1t was not an accident that blew up
the Westfeld; it was cheap labor and an at
| tempt 10 run the steamer without any legal
safeguards against disaster In ia imnious IN
say that the mangled victims of the Eastern
| Railroad collision came to their death by
visitation of Providence" when everybody
knows that plain violation of ordinary rail-
way regulations brought the express train upon
the other. There can be no mistake here. If a
| bale OF dry-goods were burned up ON the West
field or lost in the Revere disaster, its owners
would ask and jury would give full and sat
isfactory compensation therefor. We do not
condone the taking of life by fines and ex-
enplary damages. Convicted of manslaughter,
! the slayer goes TO Jail; aud no civil suits for