The Louisianian. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1870-1871, 1871-02-23
MARK TWAIN'S LATEST.
The DANGER OF LYING IN BED.

4
The DANGER OF LYING IN BED.
The man in the ticket Office said:
"Have an accident insurance ticket
also?'
"No," said, after studying the matter
over little. mo, I believe not; I am
going to be travelling by rail all day to-
day. However, tomorrow don't travel
Give me one for Tomorrow"
The man looked puzzled. He said:
"But it is for accident insurance, and
if YOU are going to travel by rail"
IF I am going to travel by rail I shan t
need it. Lying in bed at home is the
thing I am afraid off,"
had been looking into this matt q,
Last year I Travelled twenty Thousand
miles, almost entirely by rail; the year.
before 1 Travelled over twenty-five thou
sand miles, half by sea, and half by rail;
and the year before that I travelled in
the neighbourhood Of ten thousand miles.
exclusively by rail- 1 suppose if I put
in all the little odd journeys hero and
there, I may say have travelled sixty
thousand miles during the three years 1
have mentioned. And never ON accident.
For good while I said to myself
every morning: "Now 1 have escaped
thus far, and SO the chances are just that
nuch increased that shall catch it this
time. I will be shrcwd, and buy an &C
cident, ticket" And to a dead moral
certainty I drew blank, and went to
bed that night without joint started or
s bone splintcred. I got tired of that
sort Of daily doubt, and I fell to buying
accident tickets that were good for
month. said to myself. "A man can't
buy thirty blanks in one bundle"
But I was mistaken. There was never
. prize in the lot. could read of
railway acccidents every day-the news
paper atmosphere was foggy with
them but somehow they never came
my way. I found I had spent a
good deal Of money in the acciden.
business, and had nothing to show for
it Ny suspicious were aroused, and 1
began to hunt around for somebody who
had won in this lottery. found plenty
of people who had invested, but not an
individual that had ever had an accident
or made cent. I stopped buying acct
dent tickets and went to ciphering. The
result was astounding. The peril lay.
not in travelling, but in staying at home.
hunted up statistics, and was amazed
to find that after all the glazing newspa-
per headings concerning railroads disas-
ters, less than 300 hundred people had
lost their lives by those disasters in the
proceeding twelve months. The Erie
road Is set down az the most murderous
in the List. It had killed forty-six-or
.twenty-si1. I do not exactly remember
which, but ! know the number was double
that Of any other road But the fact
straightway suggested itself that the Erie
was an immensely long road, and did
more business than any other line in the
country 60 the double number Of hllad
ceased to be q matter of surprise
BY further figuring it appeared that
between New York and Rochester tho
Erie ran eight passenger trains each way
every day-sixteen altogether; and car
ricd q daily average Of 5000 persons!
That is about . million iRax months
the population, of New York city. Well.
the Erie kills from thirteen to twenty
three persons out Of its million in six
months apd in the same time 10000 Of
New Works million die in their beds! Ny
flesh crept, my hair stood on end.
"This is appalling" ! said. THE