The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1871-01-26
The Danger OF Lytng in Bed-Mark
Tvain,s Memoranda.
From the Galaxy.1

From the Galaxy.]
The man in the ticket office said
Have an accident insurance ticket,
also:"
"No," I said, after studying the matter
over a little. "No, / believe not L 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, ana II
YOU are going to travel by rail-
"If am going to travel by rail, | shan't
need it. Lying at home in bed is the thing
/ am afraid of"
had been looking into this matter. Last
wear | travelled twenty thousand miles, al
most entirely by rail; the year before
travelled over twenty-five thousand miles,
half by sea and half by rail and in the
year before that travelled in the neighbor-
hood of ten thousand miles, exclusively by
rail. I suppose it put in all the little odd
Journeys here and there, i may say have
travelled sixty thousand miles during the
three years I have mentioned. And 'aerer
an accident.
For a good while said to my self every
morning: CHOW. have escaped thus fur,
and 80 the chances arc Just that much In
creased that | shall catch it this time. l
will be shrewd, and buy an accident tick
Ct" And to a dead moral certainty | drew
blank, and went TO bed that night with
out joint started or a bone splintercd. |
got tired Of that sort of daily bother, and
fell to buying accident tickets that We're
good for month. I said to myself, GA
man can't buy thirty blanks in the bundle"
But was mistaken. There was never q
prize in the lot. / could read of railway
accidents every day--the newspaper at
mosphere was fogsy with them; but some
how they never came my way. l found [
had spent good deal Of money in the &C
cident business, and had nothing to show
for it. My suspicious were aroused, and !
began to hunt around tor somebody that
had won in this lottery. l found plenty of
people who had invested, but not an indi-
vidual that had ever had an accident or
made cent. l stopped buying accident
tickets and went toncyphering. The result
was astounding. The peril lay not in tray
cling, but in staying at home. =.
hunted up statistics, and was amazed
10 find that after all the glaring' newspaper
headings concerning railroad disasters,
less than three hundred people had really
lost their lives by those disasters in the pre-
ceding twelve months. The Eric road was
set down as the most lnlrdcr0us in the list.
It had killed forty-siX-or tWenty-six, do
not remember exactly which, but know
The number was double that Of any other
road. But the fact straiShtway suggested
Itself that the Erie was an immensely long
road, and did more business than any other
line in the country; so the double numh'' :.
OF killed ceased to be matter Tor sur,r,rlso.
By further figuring it APPEARED that be.
tween New York and Rochester the Erje
ran eight passenger trains each way every
day-sixteen every day, and carried daily
average OF SIX thousand persons. That is
about million in six months--thc popula-
ton of New York city. Well, the Erie
kills from thirteen to t~cnty-thrce persons
out of Its million II SIX months: ana in the
same time thirteen thousand of New York;
million dic in their beds My flesh cra1t :.
my hair stood on end. "This il appal
ing" ! said. "The danger isn't IN travel
ling by rail, bat in trusting to those deadly
beds; viii never sleep in II bed again.
had figured on considerably less than
one-half Of the length % the Erie road. II
was plain that the satirc road must trans
people everT day. There are many short
roads running out Of Boston that 10 lully
half RS much; a great many suuh roads.
There are a great many roads scattered
about the Union that 90 prcdioiouS bust
ness. Therefore it was iaig TO presume
that an average Of $500 passengers a day
for each road in the country would be
about correct. There are SAG railway
lines in our country, and SAG times
1000 are 2,ll5,op. So the railways Of
America move more than two millions Of
people every day; six hundred ana fifty
millions Of people year, without counting
the Sundays. They do that, too>-there is
no question about it; though where they
get the raw material is clear beyond the
jurisdiction Of nv arithmetic; for | have
hunted the census through and through,
and find that there are not that many pee
pie in the United States, by matter OF six
hundred and ten millions at the very least.
They must Use some Of the same people
over again, likely.
San Francisco is one-eighth as populous
as New fc1k there are GU deaths a week
in the f1rnler and 500 a week in the latter
if they have luck. That is 1920 deaths 4
year In San Francisco, and eight times as
many in New Yark-say about %, 900 or
5000. The health of The two places is
the same. So we will let it stand as a fair
presumption that this will hold good all
over the country, and that consequently
$4,000 out of every million of people We
have must die every year. That amounts
to one-iortieth OF our total population.
One million of us, then, die annually. OUT
OF this million ten or twelve thousand are
stabbed, shot, drowned, hanged, poisoned,
or meet similarly violent death in some
other popular way, such as perishing by
kerosene lamp and hoop-skirt contlagra-
-ti liens ~pur1ud in coal mines, falling
of house-tops, breaking through church or
lecture-room hoors, taxing patent medi-
cines, or committing suicide in other forms.
The Erie railroad kills from twenty-three Ia
forty-five; the other eight hundred and
forty-fiVe roads Kill an average Of one-thiro
Of q man each, and the rest of that millir,
amounting in the aggregate to the ~ .ti
ing figure of nine hundred and eisb' pl,al.-
thousand six hundred and thlr., 2aet an
naturally in their beds H'' "'e
You will excuse me from taking any mara
chances on those beds. ,Irne railroads ore
good enough for me, "' a.
And my advice to all people is, DON'T
stay at home any more than you can helm
but when you have got to stay at home >
While, buy package Of those INSURANCE
tlckets ana SIT up nights. You cannos be
too cautious. ~
One can see now why answered TINT.
ticket agent in the manner recorde j at The
top Of this sketch.] - ''-'
The moral OF this compc .seton is, that
thoughtless people grup ale more than il
fair about railroad mar t:csToert i, tba Tni
ted States. When c9nsider - thar o averv
day and night t j. j.. The year full fourteen
thousand ran .say trains OF various kinds,
ileign meo .lth life and armed with death,
30 thuD .,ertng over the land, the marvel Is,
aot nat they kill three hundred human
" sfnas In twelyemonth, but that they do
not kill three hundred times three hundred.
"Why," asks an exchange, !" did Grant
send Fred, Douglass and his son with the
gan Uomingo Commission" The fact
grew out OF his extreme anxiety. we pre-.