The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1880-01-28

GERS At WORK-CONFLICTING THEORIES
As TO HOW THE DISASTER OCCURRED.
from the Regular C9rre, Dondent Of the Ne" YORK
IoxDON. December 30.--1his is press
view day al the GTosveDor Gallery winter
Exhibition. Looking in there an hour ago,
fbe first arf-crific / met began discOursIDG
10 me on the Tay-Bridge disaster. The
second followed suit, and wherever you
saw a knot OF two or three people together
you heaI d that subject, and that only, dis
cussed. AS the Journalist is not very i'm
pressiOnable person, and as among journal
its the writers on art are perhaps the most
completely Indifferent, as a rule, TO all mat
tiers outside their own peculiar sphere, this
may serve as measure OF the intensity OF
public feeling Oh the calamity Of Sunday
night. II is so intense, and so universal,
that il has overcome the aversion Of the
more select portion Of the public TO any,
thing like display OF emotion, or Of hui
nan interest in human affairs. Nor i 1t an
exagecration TO say that all the talk Of Lon.
don has turned on this catastrophe; TO the
exclusion even OF Tory iubiIation over the
unexpected success OF Roberts in Afgba;-
i>tan.
The papers publish seven or eight columns |
apiece on the subject but all their inform;
lions comes from identical sources, and
much OF it Is conveyed in identical !ay-
guage No one has yet told us how tie aC-
cldent happened, nor why 1t happened, eX-
cept coDiccturaly. The awful mystery |
which envelopes The event Is one cause Of
its terrible fascination. All that is really |
known can be very briefly said. The
Sunday-aiteinoon train from Edinburgh
10 Dundee entered the Tay bridge, two
mill NJ 10 nj
teen minutes past !. The signalman
saw il, and friend Of his, who was
with him in the box, saw ii also. as il sweIt
by. The signalman had no further curioSi-
" in the matter. His companion less fa-
m.liar with railway phenomena, gazed after
the relreating and doomed train. He saw
the last OF it-saw the rear lights as they
disappeared, saw shower OF sparks, and
then saw nothing. Other people, on the
other side, are reported as having observed
the shower Of sparks. Nobody heard a
sound from the ;rain-no crash, not single
human shrek.
II was blowing a gale. So violent had
been the weather during The afternoon that
even at the mouth OF the Tay, where
southwest wind strengthened into hurri-
cane. people had remarked upon its un-
usual ierceness. On such occasion some
body is sure to turn up with prophecy
after the event, and we hear to-day OF pru-
dent souls who had thought it too wild
night for train to be safe on the bridge.
In different way. one OF the railway
clerks reports that several travellers as
thew bought their tickets asked him II
he thought the train would get across.
Bit this was meant as joke. and taken
as such. Among the number Of those
wSo arc porlentously wise after tie
event, there are two whose testimony Is no.
fceable. The first, pOus citizen Of Dun
dee, mas contributed TO the public press an
elaborate narrative OF his experience; no.
ticeable, as | said, hut noticeable only for
its absurdities, its penny aiming rhetoric,
its straining sensationalsm. and IFS sanctl-
moniousness. He told his wife he wondered
il the train would attempt 10 cross on such
night. He watched The train as ii moved
on 10 the bridge from the opposite end. He
saw "the comet-like burst OF fiery sparks,"
and "thc long, visible trail of the
streak Of fire till quenched in the
waters below" And the effect OF the
tragedy upon the mind OF this creature
was 10 sci blm ut work quarryine for ad
jectives meet for The occasion, and 10 pro-
duce Dauseous descripiion-by way of in
PRODUCTION and contrast 10 the horrors out
side-of bis domestic circle, where 1.-THE
children had gathered round me for their
usual Bible stories, and with an instructive
sense OF fear nestled close 10 my side, as
they heard the wild efforts OF the blast to
batter in the easement OF the window"
The London papers must be hard up for
real news when they publish half column
Il this rubbish; which would be more at
lone In the columns OF their "penny
dreadful" contemporaries.
Captain SCOTS evidence deserves more
serious consideration. He commands her
Majesty's training-ship stationed few hun
ored yards below the bridge near the Fife
shore He was watching the structure from
the deck OF his vessel, expecting, lie says,
every moment 10 see il give way, and never
imagining that an attempt would be made
TO take train across. His position was
such that he could not see the train. But
at a quarter past be suddenly observed
great gap In the bridge as If the central por-
ton had collapsed. He heard no sound OF
falling ironwork nor any cry OF distress,
but sea was running that no boat could
then have lived in. had he supposed there
was any reason for launching one.
, What had happened nobody knows. There
are two theories. According TO one, the
force OF The wind had driven the latter pOr-
ton OF the train from the rails, and il had
smote against the framework OF The bridge
with force enough TO wrench some main
giraer from its connecting beams, and so
the whole structure had fallen in pieces.
According TO the second, the force OF the
wind had been sufficient to sweep away
bridge and train together; and this theory,
l believe, is that which the engineering
mind is disposed to accept. There have
always been, bear. people who shook
their heads over the construction OF
the work. You have published. no
doubt. a sufficient account OF The
bridge. ard / will touch only on such
points as ore essential 10 this theory. There
was too much east iron In II, say some. It's
extreme narrowness was one OF it, most
striking features. From motives OF econ
omy Il was butt 10 carry only single line
oil rails; and It's width did not exceed 1f-
teen feet, while its height In the central
portion above the water was one hundred
and thirty feet. ! was told to-day that
great lrm 10 whom the contract for the
bridge was fret profered declined II on
a. a n