The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1879-08-21
A Railroads Reckle ssness.

Tho railroad accident, on Monday.
deserves more ihan passing notice,
as it was The direct result Of q reckless
disregard Of human lie. Had the
train been running on schedule time
at It's natural speed, the company
might with some reason claim an
acTuittal Of blame. But tho train was
an hour Slow and was making up los!
time. Every one knows that The road
bed from Winnsboro to point scvc,-
al miles below Rid@cway is one Of the
crookcdcst in The United Sta.cs-a
mere succession of short curves. Most
Of 1t is siringcr track and nangc iron,
the timbcrs and iron both being the
worse for wear. Yet The train rushed
mn'ilv along that morning, beating lis
living freight, and what was of more
consequence TO the road, the United
States mail, at the rae of Ihirty-livc
or forty miles an hour, over The
st"ingcr track, the heavy engine being
frequently Mt one extremity and the
pondcrOus Pullman car at the other
extremity Of perfect "S," the inter-
mediate coaches tossing somc one way
and some the othcr way, rs they hap
pcncd to be on alternate curves. What
wonder, that going down u heavy
grade an outer rail was forced cut Of
line, wrcnching of the spike heads,
and letting the cars down on the cross
ties, where they bumped along until
the lighter intermediate coaches were
pulled off the track into straight
line, and pitched bottom upwards OH
the inner side Of the curve and down
an cmhankmcnt twelve or fifteen feet
high: prccipitating the passengers,
many Of whom were fast asleep, head
foremost from their seats into thc
roofs Of the cars. That every passcn-
ger wns not killed is wondcr--that
no one was killed, marvel The
bleeding heads Of the passengers, as
they emerged from the wreck, proved
the narrowncss Of The escape. That
they arc not all dead is not the fault Of
the Railroad
The blame lay not with the con-
ductor or the engineer. They were
acting under orders. Upon thc train
was tho United States mail, and the
Railroad lortci;s fifty dollars every
time it misses mail connection Since
this road has been the tin pan tied to
tho Tail of the Richmond and DanvilIc
Road: lis train has been compelled
time and again 10 wait one, two and
three hours, or more, in Charlotte, 70
receive the mail delayed by some ac-
cidcnt north Of that point. fit starts
from Charlotte without tho mail, The
Richmond and Danvillc Road foriri;s
fifty dollars. If it reaches Augusta
too late to catch the Georgia roads,
it loricits fifty dollars itself. So tho
conductors arc commanded to await
the arrival nf tho N~..i,.~.... i..~:--, .>..u
then to make up The time before reach
ing Augusta. Thus, for the sake Of q
paltry fifty dollars, the life OF every
passenger is jcoparlizcd by reckless
11cing-making thirty-fvc miles an
hour on tittccn-milc roatbcd. On
Monday morning last, twenty or t.,ir-
ty human hcings, some Of them ladies',
escaped death by a miracle; but the
mail car was uninjurcd, and went on,
and we presume tho Road saved lis
fifty dollarsl
Two good coaches lay smashed, the
track complete wreck, stringcrs and
crosstics spintcrcd into kndling
wood, iron rails broken and bent; but
the Road saved itssstilty dollars!
a prominent minister Of the gospel
lies on a sick bed with Il broken collar
bone and two fractured ribs, but The
mail-bags arc unscratchcd and those
1itty dollars arc safe. AS the others
who were passengers that morning,
sit at home, and dress their cuts with
ointment and rub arnica and linimcnt
ON their bruises, they reflect with
pleasure that those fifty dollars arc a
soothing balm of Gilcad to the rufllcd
conscicnccs Of tho Railroad magnatcs
Is there no way to reach the Rail-
roads? Is, there 10 way to teach them
that human life is Of more consc-
qucnco than a mailbag, and that
Wholesale massacre shall not be peri
odically threatened for tho sake of
fifty dollars? 1t should be not SIM
ply matter of damages between par
ties injured and the Railroad, but be-
tween the Road and the State. Whcn-
ever a train, running much more
rapidly than the schedule time, runs
or and Injuries any one, the officials
under whose orders the conductor is
acting should be liable to Indictment,
and the Road should suffer fine. This
might teach Railroads the. value of
human life, a matter about which they
arc now profoundly ignorant.
n BRUTAL CAsE.--lfGycr u case on
lstcd that warranted an outbreak o.