The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-09-01
FIFTY YEARS AGO.
fTHE HousAroNIo MURDERS.

-(New Y ork World. Aug. 80, 1865.l
 Ten of the Coroner's Jury, impan- eled to examine the case of the recent horrible catatrophe on the Housa7 tonic Railroad have rendered a yer dict distinctly setting forth the causes l of that catastrophe, and imputing the. sudden and awful death of ten human fbeings passengers on that road, to of four persons, including the PRESI- DENT OF THE ROAD and the con- ductor of the train destroyed by the accident in question.
 The two remaining members of the jury while they fndorse the conclu-1 sfons of their colleagues as to the or- Y gin of the disaster, are good enough Ito ExONERATEt THE PRESIDENT and the CONDUCTOR. and to throw the entire responsfbi1ity of this atro- cious crinne upon the master me c4lanic and the engineer in charge of an engine-which, being improperly on the track was suffered by the negIi7, gence mainly of the president and conductor. aforesaid, to overtake the train and dash it to pieces
 The full saccount which we else where publish of these proceedings dispenses us from the necessity of in-i : quiring minI1tely into the possible or the probable grounds of this discrep- ancy between the reports of the ma jority and the minority of the jury in the case. As it is conceded on, all hands that three regulations are to be found among what we may call the statutes of the road which, had they been adhered to, would have been the 'taccidenh'' in question impossible; and also that no one of these regu1a- tions was compiled with on this oc- jcasion, or had for a long time pre- viously been compiled With, the com mon sense of the country will unhesi- tatingly accept the verdict of the ten jurymenS who hold the president of the road, and the conductor acting under his eyes, at least equally re- sponsib1e for the frightfu1 massacre which they ought to have prevented with the master sEnechanic'' and the engineer by whom the destroying en- zine was driven in upon the doomed train.
 It is impossible to i1naGine any req son for the existence of a railroad president who does not so far pre- lside over His road as to see that the regulations made for itss safe working are properly enforced In this case, moreover, the nominal president of the road was its real superintendent. Furthermor ore again, he was actually present upon the train to which this -taccident'' occurred, and it's conduc- tor was conducting it directly under his supervision.
 If presiding superintendent and a practical conductor in joint charge of
 
 through a fragrant, disregaro or reg 11lations, which 1t was the duty of both of these officials to understand, and one of them, at least, to see car ried out, are not the morally respon- sib1e authors of all sthe horrors which may result. from a cu1pab1e neglect of those regulations, the word "'respon- sibiFty'' has ceased to have any sub-I stantiaEs meaning, and the travelling public may as well make up their minds to take steps for protecting themselves.
 The Housatonfc case passes now, we understand, into the hands of the dis .trict Attorney. If this officer does his duty, as we have no reason to doubt he will do, the persons denounced by ten jurymen of the neighborhood as guilty of the death of ten passengers confided to their honesty and their humanity, will be speedily brought to trial
 It is extremely desirab1 that this should be done, and that such an ex- emp1ary punishment should be meted out to them, if found guilty, as may compel railroad officials of all ranks to understand the real nature of their duties. and their true relations to the community, which has the right to exact of them the most qualified de- votion to those duties.