The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1883-03-08
browning and Burning.

Inc QIOWulup anu UutliDR vi IHC
travelling public was practiced with emf
nent success last week by a German
steamship company and an American
railway company. j he press is naturally
very indignant, and demands to know
how long passengers viii be carried on
steamers which are sure to sink if they
are sun into, and on railway ears heated
in such a way as to insure the roasting
of passengers in case the train is wrecked.
Such inquiries are always made when
ever any great steamship or railway dis
aster takes place, but they never receive
any satisfactory answer. The drowning
of nearly four hundred people in the
German Ocean and the burning of
score of people in the California railway
accident were calamities that might have
been avoided by the use of proper means,
but it is extremely improbable that there
will be any improvement made in the
construction of vessels or the heating of
railway cars in consequence of them.
No matter how much ships that sink and
cars that burn may be denounced by the
newspapers, the steamship and railway
companies will pursue the even tenor of
their way just so long as no organized
and efficient effort to secure the safety of
the travelling public is made.
The Cimbria was undoubtedly as well
built rs most other ocean steamships.
That is to say, she had the usual worth
less water-tight compartments, which
are too large-with the solitary and oc-
casional exception of the forward com
partment-to be of any real service. So
~
one screw the middle compartment, in
which the machinery is placed, cannot
be divided longitudinally, and must be
large enough to sink the ship in case it
is filled with water, and so long as pas
senger steamers carry vast quantities OF
freight, which must be handled rapidly
at each end of the route, we need not
expectto see them provided with enough
water-tight compartmentsto render them
unsinkable.
1t is perfectly practicable to build a
ship with so many water-tight compart-
ments that she cannot be sunk. This
has been done in the case of the great
Italian iron-clad the Italia. She can be
cut into three or four pieces, any of
which will float for an indefinite period.
AS soon as the freight and passenger
business are separated at sea as they are
on land, and as soon as the passenger
steamers are built with twin screws and
longitudinal bulkheads, such disasters
as those of the Cambria or City OF
Brussels win be made impossible.
This has not hitherto been done
| simply because there is no organized
| demand for it. Steamship companies
find it profitable to cling to the old
methods in spite of an occasional loss of
ship. and the public forgets disasters
at sea almost as soon as they are over,
and exhibits no sign of discomfort with
steamers that are sure to sink like lead
when they are run into by other vessels.
We're there sufficient reason to suppose
that the public would patronize line OF
unsinkable steamers at prices which
would compensate the owners for their
inability to carry freight, such steamers
would be promptly built. If the travel
ing public is really determined not to
be drowned it has only to convince
steamship builders to that fact and
unsinkable steamers will at once be pro-
vided.
The railway men continue to heal
their cars with stoves and to light them
with kerosene lamps, because the public
is at ordinary times perfectly satisfied
with stoves and lamps. Mr.. Vanderbilt
once tried the experiment of lighting his
cars with candles, but the travelling pub.
lie abused him for his alleged parsimonJ
and demanded 10 have the kerosene
lamps put back. OF course, when q car
load of passengers has been roasted by
an upset stove the railway companies
are violently abused for heating theil
cars with stoves, but a month after tht
tragedy is over the public is again per
fectly satisfied with the stoves. A Goa
stove heats a car to that unbearable de
gree of heat that the travelling American
citizen demands. No other method o
heating would satisfy him, for withou
the sight of red hot stove he could no
be convinced that he was comfortably
warm. We're the stoves to be taken GU
and the cars to be heated either witt
steam from the locomotive or with no
water, the majority of passengers woul'
grumble. They would insist that the,
were not warm enough, and that tn
company was too parsimonious to pro
vide its cars with stoves. OF course, il
time, even the grumblers would becom
convinced that they could be comforta
BILE without soaring their eye-balls b
gazing on a red-hot stove, but the re
moyal of the stoves would at first be
very unpopular measure. The railwa
companies know this, and they natur
ally continue to heat their cars wit
stoves. They are far too intelligent t
confound temporary outcry made b
the press just after the occurrence Of
railway accident with the real wishes G
American railway travellers. IN. !
Times.
Following His Thought.