TOPICS OF THE DAY

TOPICS OF THE DAY

ENCLOSED with a letter which is published this week was a note reading as follows: "I have gathered such tacts as I thought would be interesting to the readers of THE JOURNAL, and written a letter which I send you. It is my first effort in writing for the press, and you must decide whether it be worthy of publication. I am not a Fireman as you may think from reading my letter. I am only a Fireman’s daughter, and sign myself, yours respectfully, * * * We will not disclose the identity of our young, and we venture to say fair, correspondent by printing her name. But the place from which she writes cannot be concealed. The directness with which she approaches her subject, the modesty of her manner, the gentleness with which she puts her thoughts on paper, and above all her frank ingenuousness make that self-evident. It is Battle Creek, Mich., and we are sure her epistle will be greeted with respectful attention.

州长康奈尔称l的注意egislature to the lack of means provided in raihoad cars for extinguishing fires. The Spuyten Duyvel disaster, by which seven persons, including State Senator Wagner, were burned to death in palace cars that had been demolished and set fire to by collision, furnished the Governor an opportunity for calling attention to the matter. As a result of that disaster a bill has been introduced in Congress intended to compel managers of railroads to equip every passenger car with a fire extinguisher, axes, crowbars, etc. This is a wise measure, and should become a law at once. In nearly every instance where passenger cars are demolished by a collision, they take fire and the wreck is entirely consumed. If some unfortunate passengers happen to be fastened down by the wreck, they are subjected to all the tortures of a slow death by roasting, as was the case on the occasion referred to. Hundreds of willing hands were there doing all that was possible to be done to save the unfortunate persons, but there were no means for putting out the fire, or for releasing the imprisoned passengers. Had there been an extinguisher and axes in each of the other cars of the train, probably every victim could have been saved. We hear of one road that has not waited for legislation on the subject, but has already ordered two hundred fire extinguishers, and in a very short time will have every passenger car fully equipped with the means of extinguishing fire. But there ought to be other means devised for heating and lighting cars other than huge coa stoves and kerosene lamps. It is from these that the cars take fire when an accident occurs, while at all times they serve to make the atmosphere of the cars almost unbearable. When the electric light is applied to railroad trains, the evil of kerosene will be done away with, but the mammoth coal stoves will still remain. Yankee ingenuity should be equal to finding some better and less dangerous method of heating cars than this.