The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1877-01-05
Who Turned the Holidays into Days
Of MOurnings
From the New York Sun.1

One hundred dead! killed-many of
them burned up. without warning, a
death at once sudden and attended by
unspe akable suffering!
A hundred dead: the names are not |
all known, and many family will watch |
and wait, for days, in uncertainty and
anxiety lest some one OF its own absent
members may be among the unrecognlz-
ed and unrecognizable slain.
Who killed these people? The Lake
Shore Railroad Company. This COM
pany had assumed the duties and re-
sponsibilIties of common carriers of
passengers, and where their road passed
over bridges they were legally bound to
see to it that the bridges were not only
strongly built originally. but that they
were kept and preserved in sound and
safe condition. This duty they neglect
ed, and hence it is that to vast number
of families the holidays have been sud-
denly converted into days of mourn
ing.
1t may be impossible to punish the
managers of the road criminally, but
one hundred civil suits, resulting in FIVE
thousand dollars damages in every one,
would mulct the road in half a million
dollars aggregate. the influence ofwhich
could not fail to be salutary on other
companies.
There is disposition to condemn, at
once, all iron bridges, because this
bridge happened to be of iron; and it Ia
we'll settled that when iron is subjected
to any jaIring use the particles become
disintegrated and the structure weaken
ed; but the fact that on the same day
another railway bridge, made of wood
, broke and let train through, show
, that it is not sufficient that one kind o
material, or another, be employed; tn
E structure must be strong enough for tn
e resistance required of it.
Bridges and buildings are made frai
to save money. These lives were expos
+. ed, and destroyed, from parsimony. LIE
n those who destroyed them be, at leas
:, made to suffer pecuniarly, even if the
g cannot be imprisoned.
e THE FARCE OF coNoNER's INQUEs,
: And now We may expect to see ii
o farce of Coroner's inquest enacted o'
er the human slaughter on the Lai
Shore Road.
81 What will be proven?
/ We anticipate evidence of experts G
n ing to establish the proposition that Il
n bridge was wisely planned in accor dan
r with the established principles of engi
eering; that it was fully strong enoug
m and indeed, if anything, a trife t
m strong; that it was the strongest brid
in the country except one, that one /
ing the wooden bridge in Vermont th
broke the came day. In fact, it will
" made to appear that, although t
~ bridge fell, it was not owing to any ia,
'0 in its construction, and that it was abb
- lutely perfect.
- We have very recent precedent
o." point. Two hundred and eighty p
sons were burned to death in the Broe
" lyn Theatre. When the architect of
S building was called before the Coron
" jury, his testimony went to show Il
the Theatre was extraordinarily and
,es most peculiarly safe.
es- Ifthe Brooklyn Theatre was safe, g
cd. the Lake Shore and Vermont brid
m were safe, perhaps the Coroners' jul
off in these several cases will see their '
to clear to recommend that theatres ,
Md bridges be made unsafe hereaf fter; fo
rly is quite clear that, in some way or OF
hot they should be different from what Il
ian are