The Washington critic., 1886-11-03
w ASHlNGTON CRITIC
WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER 3. 1s3g.
TOPICS OF TIE DAY.

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Deacon" White, who is coming to
Congress from Brooklyn as the sue.
ccssor of good Darwin p. james, is
well known In Washington, says
"Macf' in the Philadelphia Record.
lie was lawyer out West with a taste
for literature and tendency toward
science. lie came to New York on
business visit. lie climbed up to the
visitors gallery in the Stock Exchange
He looked down at the shouting,
struggling crowd below. lie thought
he was just tho scientist to do it, SO
lie went home, settled up his affairs,
went back to New York, secured
model establishment aud brought to
bear on his business the trained
powers of an unusually keen and
active mind. lie laid plans for getting
early information about all the great
railway and coal corporations of the
country. He studied the affairs of
each exhausively. He did not operate
feverishly for turn" but was willing
TO wait six months or year Ii need
be in order to make bis point. He
would study the signs Of the times
all over the world, then he would
pick up some particular stock and
case may be. 1t may take good
while, but 1t cannot go otherwise.
Then he would calmly invest his
money and wait. lie has piled up
coupe of millions In this way, Mean
while he has given great deal of time
to general reading and to astronomy,
which has become his pet science. He
has on his house on Brooklyn Heights
one of the best made telescopes in the
United States, and catches asteroids af-
Ter dark as easily as other brokers push
billiard balls or open iaclS.pots lie is
clever speaker aud an excellent
writer. lie Is as good lawyer as he
ever was. and not iufrequently appears
both in New York and Washington as
his own counsel and he will make
place for himself in the House before
his first session is over.
#*#
Railroad accidents, says the Chicago
Nal, have, in the eyes Of stock specu-
lators, merely commercial aspect.
When the terrible calamity on the st.
Paul was learned of Wall street wanted
to know how many cars had been
wrecked, how many lives had been
lost, but especially how many people
had been injured. The special stress
laid on this last would not be under
stood by the ordinary lay brother who
is outside of a railroad office, uncon.
nected with a law office, and who is
not stock brokerage expert. The pas.
senger who is killed in a railroad
smash-up costs the railroad company
Just $1,000. This is settled law. De
cision after decision has been made,
and legal fight has followed legal fight,
until now 1t is accepted by litigants of
all sorts that So, 600 can be collected as
damages for the death Of relative and
no more. But while the courts have ar
gued that for the protection Of railroads
damages for death shall be limited,
by one of those unaccountable inequi.
ties of which the law Is full no limit
has ever been set on the sum that a
passenger can sue for who has received
simply an injury. And so broken leg
may cost q railroad corporation $50 900;
broken arm. 100000: but the chill.
drcn can only collect So 200 for the loss
of their father; the widow can get no
more for the loss OF her husband. Dead
lawyers count no more than tramps;
dead millonares bring after railroad
wreck $5,000 dead laborers cost the
railroad just as much. If a millionaire,
however, escapes alive from a smash
up, he can probably get foI his broken
arm $25 900, while the laborer who
escapes alive gets only $500 for his.
This is law. Wall street is on to it and
really expressed itself as gratified the
other day to learn that in the terrible
wreck at Rio all had been killed; none
injured