where was the merciless rascal whose duty it was, or at all events should have been, to examine every particle of a machine, to the capabilities of which the lives of so many were entrusted?

In the beginning of last April, another awful calamity occurred on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, about three o'clock in the afternoon, when a train, consisting of a baggage and three passenger cars, drawn by one heavy and one small engine, passing the eighty feet filling, on section seventy-six, descending a curved grade of 116 feet to Cheat River, about seventy miles west of Cumberland, "parted company," the large engine having started some nails that bound the rails to the chestnut cross-ties. All got over safely but the two last passenger-cars, which, in consequence of the parting of the track, were thrown down to the river-side, over 100 feet, making four somersaults in the descent,. and presenting a frightful list of killed and wounded.*

The nervous system of the timid, and the astonishment of the courageous, had barely recovered its equilibrium, when another hideous event took place on the 23d of the same month. Many people will tell you that there is more danger in going from New York to Washington, than there is in crossing the Atlantic, from the several rivers and broad sheets of water that have to be passed over (on small piles overlaid with slight planks) by trains, sometimes at full speed-and recent occurrences would seem to bear out the sad conclusion. On the day in question, the two o'clock train from Philadelphia ran off the draw into Rancocus Creek, about twelve miles from that city. The draw was opened by the bridge-tender for the passage of the steamboat " Rancocus," which was then approaching the bridge. It was stated, but we cannot take upon ourselves to say it was believed, that an island and a bend in the road prevented the engineer from seeing the steamboat, and no signal being raised, the train was not entirely checked until too late, although running at no greater speed than four miles an hour when the accident occurred. The engine and car, with all the baggage, &c., were precipitated into the creek,

*We had an opportunity of speaking with one of the survivors, and venturing, as delicately as possible, to inquire if he had any recollection of what was passing in his mind, as the car was rolling over, he replied: "Oh y-eas, I perfectly remember saying, 'Lord have mercy upon us, and don't be long about it, for there a'nt a minute to spare."

It reminds one of the prayer of an old negro who was crossing a river one night, on his way home, and having the misfortune to lose both his oars, was within an inch of being drowned. Bethinking himself that the moment had arrived for him to do what he had never done before, he dropped down on both knees, and ejaculated: "Oh, Massa Lord, if you am eber gwine to help old Sambo, now is de time!"

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in fifteen feet of water, and mostly disappeared from the view. The breakman had a leg and three ribs broken, and was otherwise injured. The mail and most of the baggage was fished up," soaking wet, while the "express" sunk out of sight, together with some thirty thousand dollars, and other valuable packages. Well, the usual inquiry* took place, ending as all such farces generally do; and perhaps the matter would never have been thought of again, but for a catastrophe far more awful that happened a fortnight afterwards, arising out of the same system of neglect.

On the 6th of May, now past, the climax of all horrors was reached, when a wholesale murder of forty-four human beings, and the hacking and disfiguring of above one hundred and thirty more, rendered Norwalk, in Connecticut, a place to be remembered forever as the slaughter-house of the country. There is, not on record the history of such a domestic misfortune, where . the thread of life has been so suddenly cut in two-the chain that links life together so awfully snapped-and the severance, the struggle, the gasp, so momentary! In the dreamless sleep of security, the babe reclining on its mother's breast, father and mother watching that slumber, friend and acquaintance, and stranger, all caged in as it were in a wooden den, from which there was no possibility of escape, hurled in an instant beneath the depths of the river, where no ear could hear the bubbling shriek of death, and no hand could be extended to the relief of the dying, presents to the mind a picture that will not admit of thinking of, much less of writing about. We conversed with the eminent surgeon whose high attainments and intense application enabled him to save the lives of so many of his fellow-creatures, and his vivid description of the scene was perfectly appalling. In rooms of scanty accommodation, with scarcely a bed, and straw pallets on the floor being the principal depository for the dying and the dead, with a noble spirit, hour by the hour, he knelt over human frames, extracting broken glass and splinters, bathing the bleeding features, and closing the gaping wounds of those living in torture or expiring in agony, while his attention was alternately called off to find out the name and address of some departed victim, and to see his body decently inclosed in

The examination of the fellow whose duty it was to move and remove the draw, led to a reply unprecedented, either in sangfroid, or innocence, as the reader may determine. His answer to the question put to him was, that, "his orders were to open the draw whenever a steam-boat came along-that he had simply obeyed them, and had never tipped' a train into the water before."

6

one of the metallic coffins that had arrived for the occasion, and have them, one after the other, sent away, as if it were a bale of merchandise, by the next train!* It is useless to say more upon the subject. Since the beginning of the year, up to the period we are referring to a space of four months-about forty accidents have occurred, whereby more than one hundred and twenty individuals have been almost suddenly "sent to their account with all their imperfections on their head," and more than two hundred have been mutilated and maimed for life; and yet no director has been hung, no official been hurled into the waves where his negligence has immersed so many of his fellowcreatures, and no vagabond stoker has been thrown into the boiler he is appointed to feed. To be sure, it is no business of ours, and if people choose to be in love and pleased with ruin," let them be so by all means-we only lift up a warning voice to our own kith and kind, to induce them, at all events, to be as cautious as possible in all their transatlantic travelling arrange

ments.

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The whole system is wrong from first to last-the construction of the cars, the construction of the trams-the total absence of even ordinary precaution, and want of the protective hand of government. Their railroads traverse the centre of cities, fly across all public roads, and cleave the most crowded thoroughfares, and the only notice given to the passer-by, is a large board, with the word: "Look out for the enginet when the bell rings!" Good fun, that! They are not required to "look out" that they don't run over you, but you are required to "look out" that you are not run over! In the comparatively few instances where our railroads traverse either a high or a by-way, large gates, as we all know, are erected on either side, and a policeman is stationed at them to prevent man or horse crossing until the expected train has gone by; and by this arrangement a very proper "look out". is kept for you, instead of your being obliged to keep it for yourself; and until this and other precautionary measures (amongst others, double lines of rail) are adopted, and above all until two

The Yankee, though "in the midst of life he is in death," as long as he is not actually dead, will have his joke. A fellow who had gone down in one of the cars, luckily rose to the surface, and alighting upon a rafter, he was seen feeling in his pockets, and at length pulling out three gold dollar-pieces, he was heard to exclaim, while spitting out mouthfuls of mud and water: "Here they are-hold on-I don't mean to spend my money in this d- -d hole-when does the next train come

on ?"

+ Invariably pronounced en-gine.

or three directors have (in the delicate language of Newgate) undergone the extreme penalty of the law, the lives of the travelling community in America will be at a very serious discount.

Most parties connected with the actual hourly operation of these railroads are trumpery men of business, and it is grievous to find that while they are capable of introducing such excellent arrangements as some we have expatiated upon, they do not carry out a similar principle in all connected with such undertakings. One thing is tolerably certain, that if they pursue the reckless course now in existence, their census, when the time shall arrive for taking it again, will have undergone some considerable diminution. There are many things to be done, and many to be left undone; and while they are making amendments, let one consist of enforcing greater punctuality than they are at present guilty of exactness in business is its very vitality-and if not generally practised, the people there know what it is; for they tell you a story of a man who was so scrupulously exact in all his dealings, that whenever he paid a visit, he would insist upon taking a receipt for it.

CHAPTER XIII.

Lake Erie-The British fleet swallowed at one mouthful-England's only chance of salvation-Statistics of the lake country-Lake poetry-The Falls of Niagara-What to do when you get to them-Every joke, Sheridan's Difference between saying and doing-British and American ground not half a mile apart-Taking a "wet," inside and outA thundering * * *—The Windsor sentinel-Sapho and the Lover's Leap-Any quantity of water you please-Buffalo city, its advantages, and its pretensions-No end to a street in it-The odds against arriving at the Falls of Niagara.

WE parted company some time since, good reader, at the town of Cleveland, or rather (not to pay it any disrespect) the Forest City; but we did not stay there longer than it took us to go from the railway station to the wharf, alongside of which was moored a huge steamer entitled the "Northern Indiana," and the distance being about two hundred and fifty yards, it occupied a cool five minutes. This vessel forms one of those floating hotels which are constructed for the inland navigation, and which form such a wondrous feature in the shipping statistics of the United

States. This ponderous boat plies between Cleveland and Buffalo, across the waters of Lake Erie; and being intent on sailing over the one, as a more preferable mode of arriving at the other, we did so; and now we will presume ourselves to be on the aforesaid lake. You must make up your mind when traversing this sheet of water, to be entertained with an enormous yarn about the wondrous victory obtained hereon by Commander Perry in 1813, on which occasion he swallowed up the British fleet in no time, and thereby enrolled his name amongst the greatest naval commanders of the wide earth. At the same time, they scrupulously avoid making any mention of the disparity of force in the two armaments, and of the inferiority of that force in the British one. They don't say a word of Perry having three brigs, five schooners, and one sloop, opposed to a wondrous fleet of two ships! one brig! one schooner! and one sloop! chiefly manned by Canadians, while in the enemy's ranks were to be found many an actually born Briton!

How truly did the late Duke of Wellington say that England could never afford to carry on 66 a little war." Yet this is a specimen of the silly warfare she pursued with the United States in 1812, 1813, and 1814, when, satiated with all her vast victories in Europe, she treated America far more as a dependent than an equal, and thereby enabled her to display that power which, "on fair ground," she had not made so manifest: Your genuine American will swagger about the "Constitution," with 55 guns and 480 men, capturing, after a desperate conflict, the "Java," with 46 guns and 377 men-and of the "Hornet" sloop of war, of 20 guns and 127 men capturing the "Peacock," of 18 guns and 116 men-but he will not breathe a syllable (cunning dog, not he!) of the " Shannon," of 45 guns and 330 men, having captured, in fifteen minutes, the "Chesapeake," of 49 guns and 440 men, or of the "Pelican," of 18 guns and 116 men, having placed her paw upon the "Argus," of 20 guns and 127 men, in something like the same brief period. We should be sorry, could it be implied that these remarks have any reference to the eminent and intelligent citizens of America, who know with ourselves, the exact position of each country, and who would be the last, as would all lovers of this land, to desire to see it embroiled in difficulties with one bound to it by the ties of consanguinity, regard, and interest-we allude solely to those very fast people who talk about "whipping all creation, only give them time enough," and who are in the habit of saying it so often, that they really begin to think it is true. What stuff all this is! The prowess of England. has been a feature in the world's history