New-York tribune., 1882-09-27

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| tions were demanded at every station on the
division. The boy was unable to do the woIk
which poured in upon him, and the result was
collision which murdered two persons and
seriously injured several others. There are
reasuns in abundance why no important slgnai
station should ever be left to the exclusive
care of single person. He may be taken Ill
suddenly and rendered incapable OF duty,
when an accident is the inevitable result. Inc
same reasons which make it the duty OF every
ferryboat to carry two pilots apply WITH
obvions force to all railway signal stations.
They should always have two men on duty
If there had been two men at the Ninety-slAth-
st. station last Friday the collision would
never have occurred. That the superlntcnd-
ent did not have his force doubled all along
the bockaded division the moment he heard
of the blockade was an unaccountaDle anu
incxcusable neglect of duty.
OF the responsibility of the management OF
the New Haven road it is difficult to speak with
equal exactness. If the Harlem signal Once
had done its duty the disaster would have been
ayerted That fact is unimpeachable, but the
New Haven managers make "a serious mistake
if they think to escape oil censuTe on that ac-
that they were running train with no brake
man except water-boy, and it is by no means
certain that if they had had an experienced
brakeman on the rear OF their train he might
not have been able to signal the Harlem train
in time to avoid collision. The New-Haven
managers cannot plead that it was II mere ac-
cident that they had no brakeman on their
train. 1t is notorious that their trains are the
most shabbily equipped cars which are sent
out by any respectable railroad. The brake
men are nearly all boys just out OF their ap-
penticeship at the water pals. On the local
trains especially it is the exception when
tram reaches the station at Forty -sccond-st
with more than one brakeman, for there are
nearly always delays at and below the june
ton with the Hudson River road when brake
men have to be dropped. We venture to say
that the passage OF n New-llaven train through
the tunnel with boy for It's only
brakeman is of daily occurrence. The
pcnuriousness of the Ncw-I Haven road in the
matter of employees is no new story. 1t was
made startlngly apparent in the series OF ac-
ciderts further out on the road last year, ana
it is daily theme for comment and obJLrga-
ton among the patrons of the road.
Indeed, it is singular fact that no patron
of this road ever speaks we'll of it. The com
municatons which have been made to the
newspapers since the collision all display this
common bitterness Of feeling. Daily travellers
on the road say they put into cars fit only for
cattle and that no efforts made for their con-
venence or comfort. Residents along the
line of the road complain of tho niggardIy
economy which negiects to provide ilagmcn at
the crossings or a sufficient number OF en-
ploves at the stations TO furnish even ordinary
safeguards for the protection OF human life.
Only few days ago prominent merchant OF
this city, who has been spending the summer
in Westchester County, saidi | think |
subjected my family to a great risk III taking
I" them ont on this road this summer Only
Z" the other day while ont driving with my
family was nearly run over by an express
" train because there was no fiagman at the
crossing. Every day when come into the city
"with my boys ! subject myself and them to
{" the risk of Il collision in that tunnel by taking
" n train guarded by water-boys." Expressions
Of this kind are simply common talk. They are
heard with unusual emphasis now because
fridays disaster was in partial sense due
to tho same penuriOus management which
gives cause for all complaints Whether they
will have any effect upon the officials OF the
road is very doubtful. Neither complaints nor
accidents have moved them heretofore The
road is rich and prosperous, and its directors
appear to be too much absorbed in swelling
the size Of their already fat dividends to pay
any attention to so triing matter as the
saving cf Il few human lives.