Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1878-10-09

IL says UOInlOS Vi ITlnCe AjeXanucr,
who is at present staying in Switzerland.
The Safety Of Railroad Travelling.
The evidence gathered from French
reports show tendency of which every
one has general knowledge, but which
for all that, one likes to have demon
strated. In the first twenty years of
railroad travel there was, on an average,
one passenger killed of ], 995, $50 travel
ers. In the next twenty, from 1856 to
1875, there was only one killed out of
6,T1,117 passengers. The ratio of pas
sengers injured to the total number of
travellers also changed from to 496, 300
in the first twenty years to TO 59O, 1856
in the second. Contrast these figures
and ratios now with the loss of life that
was incurred in the old days of stage
coaching. Then one passenger was kill
ed out of 335, 900 travellers, and one in
every $1,000 was injured. In England
travelling is not quite so safe, one pas
senger being killed, in 1877, out Of A.
81, 727, and one out OF 429, 1924 being in
jured. This ratio of safety is greater
than it was in 1876, when one passenger
out of 8, S72, $40 was killed.
In New York the safety Of travellers
is better secured than in England, and
not quite so we'll as in France. In 1877
out of S, ZIG. 800 passengers only one was
killed. and this included those who were
killed by carelessness Of their own, not
by negligence Of the railroad company.
The average number of miles travelled
for each passenger killed in New York
was 1877 1854 Ola distance nearly
equal to one and half times the dis
lance of the sun. If ono should have
set out to travel in a Car at the discov-
cry of America, and had gone at the
rate of thirty miles an hour, he would
still have some hundred years to travel
before he would be likely to meet his
death were the travelling as safe all the
way as it is in New York. We do not
know the average length of each jour-
ney, but whatever it was the entire pop
ulation of New York and Pennsylvania
could be moved that distance, and the
chances are that not one would be kill
ed, through fault Of either himself or
the railroad people. 1t is probably safer
to ride in the cars than to walk the
streets of a great city.
1t is important to notice that the acct
dents to passengers who mind the rules
Of the companies, ana keep their seats,
are less frequent than those who 60
providing about the train. Thus in the
report Of the Pennsylvania company
for the memorable year when it per-
formed its marvellous work Of moving
the millions to the centennial. it is stated
that out of 6,926,O16 passengers carried
only four were killed anu twenty-six in
iured. with this accompanying state
ment; "Of the four passengers killed
two fell or jumped from the train when
in motion, one fell between platform
and track and was run over, and the
other fell asleep in the car, and in that
condition walked off the train and was
found dead on the track by the watch
man. Of the twenty-six passengers in
jured ten jumped from the train when
in motion; one, a convict in trying to
escape jumped from train and fell; five
fell from train intoxicated; seven were
injured in consequence of violating the
rules of the company; one was injured
by collision with ballast train on Ebens-
burg & Cresson branch, and two by be-
ing thrown from seats, caused by fast
line west running into slide"
Another fact is that it is rather more
than six times as dangerous to be an
employee on the train as be passenger.
Thus in New York in 1877, the passen-
gers killed were Z, employees, So. In
Massachusetts passengers killed. 3S-it
was the year of disaster-and en-
ploves 93. In Pennsylvania, passengers
killed So employees killed 1893. The ten
dency all time is toward greater safety.
The patent couplings, the air brakes,
the improved road beds, and the signal
stations-all these promote security.
What is quite as much to the comfort
Of the ordinary traveller, they promote
the feeling of perfect security. Not one
of the six million passengers on the
Pennsylvania Central during the cxposi-
ton could have helped being impressed
by the spectacle of the lookout stations.
They were evidence of continual and
watchful care for the safety Of passen-
gers and lulled to complete rest all feel
ing Of insecurity Cincinnati Times.
Nousf prooch EncJ