THE RAILWAY GUARD.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume xvx, Issue 228, 25 September 1880, Page 4

THE RAILWAY GUARD.

("Capital and Labour-?) ,- > ( v Take your seats if you atfe^oihg'otfX Right!' These wdrdl> foUojfcechby al shrill whistle, echoed hy. the shriek pf % the locomotive, are th'e^b'hMl' W.k $8-* sociate in our rnipds with plhe railway* ; guard— (foejof :^:;:m4st^'eHteoV-«%er« hfi ps, ojf our .,workiog-bees ? . r _- .--_-.; „ : ■ . • . It is generally thought that the miner's is the mop\ c *,Hisßf> \ but statisticscprov^thatfWb-far as^Jatal" 5 accidents are con r cjgn!&d, railway servants greatly head^jhb -l^|v x It is probable, tooptKa^i^^stimat^^made of the fafal acoirfeni<Ni.n^,$ l g ra Hp*y servants is under the actuaKnum%r N . In the flrst place the rail%^ cooffianies are not required by G^f^nmeltrt^to furnish any retorts from $fci<<h an %c^. curate estimate could be formraj\and a^ a matter of fact none are voMnsaril^f; given. The most reliable information'; obtainable is from the reports of/the" 1 benefit societies formed in connedtiotr with the different lines, as^he.Board^ of Trade roturna of the number .of rail- j way servants killed and injured . are: necessarily faulty. In^round number* it Jfroulici >|P^w y oi#tlfOr every _ 4 _lq£Cjoofpfeoployed on and al)6pt r j'ailwayß,-35 &X.f , killed and 843 inju^d/lwhllefor Svfery' 10,000 employed io.abd;about-'naities&3' are killed and 1900 injured. - - - i Some stations are provenbialiy. r ni.or^ {fatal fhTh ! 'oilier s,//e Ve'n though' Ve japapunt-Gf-bujßineßß bt them" iajlefs'thanl; Jat niiany^thers.' '" Thi^moW' Vatift'oYall' jspots for railway emploj&a J'heJafsteffeßi jnre, of course, goods sleds, where shunting is constantly goiugon * night r ja6d daywr ,flhe writer 7of thief, sketch jonce had a woman J pointed .oht) to ;him who had had four husbands killed io succession in oneparticulorshed, and, as she persisted in believing, by one particular engine, which she evidently regarded a kind of Juggernaut. j"Ytee;" -she replied to the writer, "I jbad only been married eighteen months* to my first, wben^up^came the engine." (ihis form of expression meant that her husband, who, itseemed, was a shunter bad been knocked down and killed by an engine-while at\woj , 'k^V'^clV > ... he woman 'continued, iim w7jßhd Tof times, '-.-I niafrjea'J the nan ;Who picked poor, Jack L up:; |iiut we J had s hot been-insrrjed four weeks beiore op .6ame-^he;^gif^^j^i'n^ Bu' *■!' *»*- --, Wor ac this . -tic^e r ; for Jthp; second: picked up^ ih.pigceS;?' TP^ath^ in the . same shed by ihp same .means came Jto lier two^Bucpeeijijg^^ h > guard anda shunter* " Ij!Quld|marry Another goods "guard thiß.w~eek,'f the woman added with feminine vanity , . f but, jss Awhile that

ehliheTiCbn^thelsldiiigtV ; WdQT founjd , theLwomao firmly bfclievecUhai the self-, , same engine brought death to herfodr : * husbands. -Dfcatt/ to the/ j fe w *'n£ajE be) p taken to be the penalty ; th&lf hineteehtii , 'oentpry civilisation! fays ,fbV.the'convenience of the many, ajnd the . even within the m'ofetrecent/years, has * been ah alarming heavy -ohe. 'Take, for inatanoe, the Tay Bridge disaster*. What" oould'be more awful the ; tbought of a passenger train in the , gloom, pf , the night, rushing in thb' Of a^rkging storm uponca faithless bridge, to be dashed with its living freight from a dizzy height into seething waters below without a mo- , men t's -warning? ; It is nexM>p impossi^ ■ ble -for-ahy railway accident of "magnif tude to occur without the engine-driver and guard, probably both, being included among the victims, and in the passenger depaftment of jour railwpys,j nOiless than in- the goods 1 departUientj -the railway guard may be said to be 1 -exposed to- dangers Buch as no" working .bee is exposed .Jo, Bave the minejr, r aud,j ;asjwe. have pdinted out, ' the Vcilwayj servant, so far as* fatal accidents are are concerned,; is! the least fortif'natej of alj our working bees. ; '.; — i