Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-01-06
MANS CARElESSNESS.
Fires. Explosions, Collisions and n Host
of other Accidents,

Fires. Explosions, Collisions and n Host
of other Accidents.
Scarcely less appalling than the list of
elemental casualties is that Of the accidents
/ of 1887, that may be attributed almost
wholly to the carelessness of man, the
greatest sufferer. The year that is passed
will go down n history marked with the
shameful record of Chatsworth, Kouts,
the Tin Bridge and the Woodstock acct
dents. The worst feature of all these &C
cidents was the dreadful car stove. With
out this terrible relic of the primitive in
railroading in our trains, few, if any, of
the more horrible features of these acct
dents would have had to be recorded, and
it is gratifying TO be able to record the
fact that during the past summer many
OF the best American railroads were very
busy at the work of experimenting with
steam heating of railroad trains and this
winter not few cars are kept warm with
steam supplied direct from the boiler of
the locomotive.
Not less horrible than the railroad acct
dents of 1887, however, were the theatre
disasters, and America may congratulate
herself that none of the greatest of these
calamities took place on her soil. France
and England were the sufferers. The
problem of safe theatre building has long
been known to be an intricate one, but it
would seem that only few more such
appalling catastrophes as the burning of
! the Opera Comique in Paris and the
Theatre Royal in Exeter would be needed
to stimulate some ingenious architect to
its complete solution.
An accident of a quite different sort
and more terrible in its possibilities, for
tunately not realized in this case, was the
explosion of escaped naphtha under four
miles of the streets of Rochester, n y.
and the possibilities in this case will come
home to all jewellers in cities, who inves-
tigate the amount of indammable material
that is carried under their streets and
homes and places of doing business,
JANUARY.
Adoloschi palace, Rome, burned; damage,
! 81 0OO,0o0-Three hundred killed in fire at
Madras India.
IS. Schooner Parallel destroyed by explosion OF
| giant powder at the Golden Gate San Francisco
Panic at Sptalheld's theatre London; seven
teen killed.
s. One hundred and forty-four killed by fire
damp explosion in Belgium.
g. Eghty-six killed by explosion of Roburite at
st. Etienne, France
II. Thirty five killed by railroad accident at the
''tin bridge" near Boston, Mass
IS. Ten burned to death at destructive hotel fire
in Buffalo.
FEBRUARY.
g. Forty killed by train falling through bridge
at Woodstock, VT
-. Hotel fire in Berlin; 81 900 900 loss.-Fire il
Augusta, Ga; S2Oo,0O0 loss
~. Fire at Chautauqua; $4,000 loss.
81. Burning of salt works at Warsaw, N. Y
$4,000 loss.
%. Seventy killed by colliery explosion in New
South Wales.-Twelve miners burned to dealt
by fire in lodging house in Bessemer, Mich.
APRIL.
| g. Burning of Massachusetts state printer
establishment at Boston.
~. Many ancient buildings destroyed by fire q
| st. Augustine Fla
10. Twenty people drowned in Dieppe, France
rs. One hundred and fifty drowned by sinking
of steamer Benton off Formosa.
MAY.
L. One hundred and fifty men entombed b,
mine disaster at Vancouver, British Columbia
T. Steamer La Champagne lost; 40 lives lost
| Burning of Harlem planning mills; $4,000 lost
10. Fire at New Lebanon, n. H.; $4,000 loss
u. Fire in Paterson, N. j., iron works; S250OO
| loss.
H. New York hay market, ut Thlrty-thrC
street, burned; S2OO, OO0.-Steamer Empire Stat,
burned at Bristol, r. l.; $4,000 loss
22 Several passengers reported killed by COLI
sion between White Star steamer Celtic and Brit
annie.
25. 200 burned to death in Theatre Comiqu'
! fire, Paris.
2G Fire in property of Belt Line railroad o
New York, 1900 horses, $500 worth of property
! destroyed.
as. Colliery explosion at Glasgow, Scotland; 2
! lives lost.-Chicago Dressed Beef company los
| $3.50 600 by fire in Brooklyn.
JrSE
:. A falling building in Berlin Injuries 300 per
sons; many killed.