The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-02-11
BAIL AND cROSSTIE

Henry Harris, of the Charleston railroad.
has been appointed yard mastsr Of the
Central at Macon.
Assistant Train Master Storey, Of the
Cs1rral. who has been indisposed for sew
e-al days, was in his Office yesterday.
" I. Griffin, formerly conductor on the
Savannah. Florida and Western railway.
Tho was injured in the Hurricane creek
disas-er. came down from Atlanta yes
terday.
Toe imperial train of the Car of Russia
Is lighted BY electricity, which is furnished
from a complete plant carried in a car bv
itself. The train consists of fifteen cars.
and during 1888 it ran upward Of 5000
miles.
H. Y. Righton, formerly baggage agent
of the Savannah, Florida and Western rail-
wav, has been appointed station master in
the Savannah, Florida and Western rail-
way yard, and has charge of the moveme t
of all trains. j. +. Ward has been ap-
pointed assistant station agent.
President Alexander, General Manager
Gabbett, Il. t. Inman, and others of the
Central. went up to the Fiur-Mile hill
YES erday to test a steam ditching machine.
which the Central has recently purchased
TO use on its new lines being built and in
its ward and other places where drainage is
desired, or where dirt is wanted for differ
ent parts of the road.
The supreme court of Tennessee held. in
the recent case of Mayor, etc, of Nashville
VS.. McGavock and Mount Vernon Street
Railroad Company, that where an ordi-
nance Of the city imposed on the street rail-
way company the duty of paving the streets
only at places where there were no pave
ments laid, and the city after ward changed
ments were already laid, the cost of the
charge could not be collected from the rail-
road company, but that the latter could
only be held responsible for the cost of the
repairs.
The report of the Texas state controller
for the year ended Sept. 30, 1882 shows the
total mileage in operation to be S,15l miles,
representing a construction cost of S346, ESQ.,
413, on which, in addition to capital ock
amounting to SIT, 454, 000 there was a
bonded Indebtedness of $233, $4,000. The
unpa coupons on these bonds amounted to
$10S54 585 and the floating indebtedness
was SIS, 5l5, 227 while the total gsoSs earn
ings were only S2S, 227, 927. or about 81 ,0OO,-
600 less than The unpaid interest and float
ing debt. The net ear ings ere 50, 37S, 1898,
which is equiv lent to less than / per cent.
of the cost of construction, or about ~ per
cent. on the capital stock, or less than IL
per cent. on the bonds, or about / Is per
cent. on a valuation of s25, 900 per mile.
A correspondent of a German paper,
wri ing from Rome, comments on Italian
railroads and railroad management in an
anything but fattering manner. OF all in
situations in Italy, he says, railroads have
been least developed, falling behind the
standard set in any of the European coun-
tries, rot only as regards comfort and speed ,
hF1tu cnf II
The fitting up of the pas senger cars is very
poor, which is true even of the first-class
cars As q consequence of the scarcity of
cars the trains are overcrowded a ID the
return of the rolling stock of other railroad
companies is frequently delayed for long
periods. As TO the personnel, it is small in
number and poor in quality, being very
poorly paid. Its efficiency is further i'm
paired by unduly long hours of service. A
large proportion of the accidents is due to
careless attendance at switches. Newspaper
agitation to bring about Improvement has
been of no avail. In view of all this, it is
gratifying to note that at least one system
is about to make trial of the block system.
In the case of Quimby VS.. the Boston and
Maine Railroad Company, it appeared that
the plaintiff W travelling apon the defend
ant company's road upon free pass given
him at his own solicitation. The pass con-
tanned on its back an agreement to the
effect that the holder IN consideration
thereof assumed all risk of accident which
might happen to him while travelling on the
trains OF the defendant company on which
the ticket might be honored for passage.
Upon its face the ticket contained the words
provided he signs the agreement on the
back hereof" The agreement was not,
however, signed by the plaintiff. The SUI
preme court OF Massachusetts held
that the plaintiff could not re-
cover for accident caused by the
negli gence of the defendants servants. The
court said that it did not regard as I'm
portant the fact that the plaintiff was not
required to sign, and did not sign the agree
ment on the back of the pass Having
accepted the pass, the court said, he must
be regarded as having done so on the condi-
tions fully expressed therein, whe her he
actually read them or not. The court said !:
The object of the provision as to signing is
to furnish complete evidence that the per-
son to whom the pass is issued assents
thereto, but one who actually avails him.
self of such ticket and of the privilege it
confers to secure a passage cannot be
allowed to deny that be made the agreement
expressed therein because ne did not and
was not required to sign it. 4 + If this
is held to be so, the case presents the single
inquiry V neither such a contract is invalid,
which has no, heretofore been settled in
this state and upon which there has been
great contrariety of opinion in different
courts. x x We are of opinion that
when one accepts freely as a gratuity free
passage upon railroad train upon the
agreement that he will assume all risk OF
accident which may happen to him while
travelling on such train b. which he may be
injured in his person, no rule of public
policy requires US to declare such contract
invalid and without binding force.
GEORGIA EDUCATIONAL gEXHTBIT