The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-23

and 1t was only through lucky change
IN the wind that some of the most Inn
portant structures in the city were
saved from ruin.
Why the authorities of those cities
still neglect to adopt, at least some
of the American Ideas in the matter
of fire fighting, is a mystery. But then,
after air. it is no more of a problem
than their obstinacy in adhering to
their half-a-century behind the times
style of railroad car, or their antedi-
luvian plan Of handling the baggage
OF passengers. Three or four times a
year some one is murdered in COM
partment of an English railroad car
riage." The newspapers howl against
the compartment system for few
days tell what all the world knows al
ready how easy it is for murderer
to fix it so that he and his victim can
travel alone on an express train say
from Holyhead or Chester to London,
have plenty of time to accomplish his
purpose long before the train stops at
seat, and then disappear in the crowd
at the terminus; or how a defenseless
woman often finds herself the sole oc-
cupant of a compartment with lun-
attic, and dreadful tragedy follows.
All these perils are every other day
brought home to the great British pub
lie but no move is made, no practical
reform is lnaugurated; John Bull joys
along happy and content with things
| as they are, and the old conservative
policy of mo change" is persevered in
to the last direful letter.
Slow in some things, Englishmen are
however, wonderfully alert and prog
ressiye in others, and of this fact nc
stronger proof can be afforded than
the existence of the Manchester shir
canal, with the history and construction
of which readers of The Sunday Spy
were made familiar some eight or ten
weeks since. Up to a dozen years ago,
nothing larger than a rowboat was ever
seen afioat in or near the city of Man
chester, which is just the same dis
lance inland as our own city of Wor-
cester. Today, ocean freighters carry
their cargoes from Calcutta and New
Orleans, past Liverpool and along the
canal right up to the Manchester ware
houses without opening hatch OF
stopping the engines.
| But the latest and most interesting
fact about the canal is that, the Man
chester Liners Company, Limited, has
| just completed it's plans for the estab-
| lishment of a through steamship ser
vice between Boston and Manchester
The new line will consist of the steam
Eers Cynthiana, Gloriana, Italiana and
| Salfordiana-the latter named after the
borough of Stafford, which is practically
a part of Manchester. The Cynthiana
! is already in commission and will start
on her first voyage from Manchester tC
Boston on Nov. 8.
+ The startling news of the untimely
death of Harold Frederic, the London
correspondent of the New York Times,
was received by none in America with
greater sorrow than by those who are
of Irish birth or sympathies Frederic
did giant service for the home rule
cause, by his able, impartial and fear
less pen. His cable letters in the N
Y. Times every Sunday were looked for
by thousands of Irishmen throughout
New York, and the New England
states and they were never disappoint-
ed in them The familiar initials H. F.
at the end of the article were sufficient
guarantee that what appeared above
was the honest truth, told by an honest
journalist whose eyes knew no blinks
of prejudice On the testimony of q
we'll known London editor and mem
Der of the house of commons, who Wis
! tied Worcester some half dozen years
ago, Harold Frederic was regarded as
the cleanest, most honorable and most
painstaking American newspaper mar
the New York press ever sent to Lon
dom Frederic, unlike Smalley of the
Tribune, was an American in his every
fibre. He looked at things that were
going on around him with an eye as
impartial as a judge upon the bench
| and he so commented upon them in hi:
| 10
of sc. w. s." in the Tribune were 9
tissue Of tory prejudice, with all the
added bitterness of the Yankee turned
tory.
Harold Frederic's passing away, al
so early, means a loss to Anglo-Amer-
lean Journalism in more senses thar
one, and the pity of it is that many
suns will rise and set before we may
look upon his like again.
l. - n OsEONNENT II. CALVIN