TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Star, Issue 10899, 6 April 1899, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

[Fhom Oob Special Correspondent.] LONDON, February 24. A BELGIAN RAILWAY SMASH. One ol the most appalling railway catastrophes It has ever been my lot to chronicle occurred shortly after eight o’clock on Saturday morning at the station of Forest, a few miles out of Brussels. The ordinary passenger train from Journal, which had been delayed some fifteen minutes by the dense fog prevailing, was just preparing to leave Forest for Brussels when the Calais and Lisle express, which runs in connection with the service from London, and was at the time going at the rate of fully forty miles an hour, dashed into the rear of the standing train. The impact was terrible. The heavy exuress engine and tender literally leaped into the air, and came down on the two end carriages of the local train, smashing them into matchwood and deluging their mangled occupants with boiling water and live coals. For a moment after the crash there was an ominous silence, and then came the agonising shrieks of the maimed and mangled passengers. For a space the hideousness of the catastrophe benumbed the faculties of all who had witnessed it. But not for long. Willing hands were soon at work endeavoring to extricate the dead and dying, special trains brought breakdown gangs and doctors from Brussels in an incredibly short srace of time, and meanwhile a dozen voung medicos, who happened to be in the Lisle train, did noble work in alleviatim* the agonies of those who could be readil” extricated from the jumble of iron mu! wood. One of the first to be taken from the wreckage was a fair-haired girl of some eighteen summers, whose body had been cut dean in two by the driving wheel of the express. Near her corpse was another, that of a middle-aged man, whose left side was simply a mass of crushed bone and flesh, .dn old man, head was literally pulped, was found in proximity, his hand clasped in that of a girl of tender years, unharmed save for a few bruises and a scalded neck, but dead, A little later another voung woman was found pinned down by wreckage. She was badly bruised about her lower extremities, but not seriously injured. Around her the dead ley thick. Here was a young felloV whose head was mangled out of all recognition, and there four corpses of men and women with limbs crushed and faces mutilated out of recognition. Right under the wheels of the express engine was found a shapeless mass of humanity. Only by the clothing could this gruesome jumble of flesh and blood be identified as the body of a merchant named Sluyten, whose wife and two sons were staving at Forest. They had been to the station to see their loved one off, but, hearing the awful crash of the collision, had returned to see what was the matter. The boys’ mother got separated from her sons in the crowd that quickly gathered at the station, and nearly an hour elapsed before the v could find any trace of their father. When fbev saw that terrible corpse the voung fellows swooned away, but, recovering, sought their mother and tried to persuade her that her husband had not been in the train. She, however, knew without being told that the worst had happened, and insisted on being taken to where her life partner lay dead. Of the distressing scene which took place when Madame Sluyten saw her husband’s corpse it is impossible to convey an idea. And that scene was only one of many, for twenty-one people in the slow train were killed outright and nearly six score injured in a more or less terrible fashion. Most of them were local people, whose relatives were quickly on the spot. Strange to say. beyond a few bad bruises and severe shakings, no one in the express train appears to have been injured. Even the engine-driver and stoker escaped serious hurt, but it is said that they were so horrified at the results of the smash that they ran away from the scene and did not report themselves for twenty-four hours. One can hardly wonder at their action. It is bad enough to read of such fearful calamities, and one cannot repress the query “Why do these things happen?” Mans ingenuity cannot prevent fogs, and man cannot obviate all danger of accident on the railway arising from imperfections in iron and steel used in the construction of permanent ways and rolling stock, but the mere fact of a signal being rendered .invisible by fog ought not in these enlightened days to mean wholesale death and destruction. TEN DAYS IN THE TROUGH OF THE SEA.

The standing luck of the Cunard Company, who, for more years than one cares to look back upon, have carried passengers to and fro across the Atlantic by scores of thousands per annum, and can yet boast that they have never lost a single life by wreck or other mishap at sea, has been proved once, again. Their fine steamer Pavonia left Liverpool for Beston on January 24, with but ja, small complement of passengers, some fifty all told, and a crew of 113. Once out of the Mersey the good ship met hard weather, but nothing to cause her captain anxiety, though, perhaps, it made her engineer swear to see his coal disappearing at a rate which ought to have meant 400 odd miles a day when the steamer was only Jning a trifle over half that mileage, and made the passengers wish heartily that it were possible to “ get out and walk.” It was bad enough, at any rate, to make them wish they were safely back in the “ good old town,” as Liverpudlians affectionately term their native city. But they were to experience far worse samples of the angry might of the deep, deep sea. The Pavonia, when six days out, was struck by a hurricane, and for four-and-twenty hours wallowed in the trough of the sea, unable to make any headway against the tempest. On the following day, February 1, the weather moderated a trifle, and tpe steamer

•compeU'ad' to lay-to all day. ‘Ute repu|| oflhe second- hntriqanp, ; moreserious than ithepassengers weto;madg| ■ aware of,,format three o’clock on the noon oil Friday, the 3rd, the boilers came, adrift, and the ' engines were*; perfor&i stopped; The consequences were most- Mr? pleasant for aU on helpless vesseLi the heavy seas breaM&g "OTOt „ her aMqSp without intermission.;Ph f&turday, Feb* ruary 4, the British atpOap^r‘Colorado hove in sight, and was fort assistance. Her capthih malaged, after a') long fight with the ? to get tow ropes aboard the Pavphia, on Sunday"; morning commenced to ha\u «the big ship ; along. Not many miles had been com- ' passed, however, before the'tow ropes broke under the strain, carrying away , the Colorado’s bits and rigging;. As a towing machine the Colorado’s commander signalled, that his ship was no further use, but he indicated that he would stand by until morning. In the night, however, the gale drove the vessels miles apart, and when morning broke the “ Pavonians looked but on a scene of angry desolation, unrelieved by so - much as a smoke trail on the horizon. For 1 the next two days the Cynarder. was the i plaything of the elements, and that her condition was desperate was to every soul aboard.. Her boilers were all adrift, and rolling about in the hold, and through the broken off sea cocks the water was pouring in by gallons. Right gallantly did officers and crew labor night and day to secure the errant boilers, but it 'was fearfully slow and dangerous work, and every sea that came aboard made the ultimata fate of the vessel and her living freight seem all the more certain. Three boats were, swept from her decks, the port rail and galley carried away, and the bakehouse stove in by gigantic waves. For another day the Pavonia drifted helplessly, and though Captain Atkin and his officers kept up a brave, front, most of those on board reckoned themselves as lost. On February 9 a gleam of hope came to the stormtossed Pavonians in the shape of the steamer Horatio, of Liverpool. But the Horatio was herself badly damaged, and to the Pavonin’s urgent signals for assistance could only answer “ Cannot asist.” Next day another steamer, the Wolviston, of Hartlepool, was sighted, and, being made acquainted with the Pavonia’s pitiful plight, hurried up to take her in tow. For six hours the Wolviston tugged the liner along, but near midnight a staggering sea caught the Pavonia on the port bow, and, with a report as of a gun, the big cable parted. The Wolviston, however, stood by the drifting ship all night and the whole of the next day, but all attempts to renew the connection between the vessels were unavailing, and on Sunday a terrible gale sprang up which caused them to loss sight of each other, and caused the Pavonians to give way to despair. The captain of the Wolviston, however, had no* intention of abandoning them to their fate. Hr searched for the missing liner, and, finding her on Monday morning, stood by her until the towing cables could be again fastened, which task was accomplished the following morning. The weather happily moderated, and, the cables holding, the Wolviston managed to tow the disabled liner to the Azores, arriving there on Saturday. February 18, to the unspeakable ioy of the passengers and the infinite relief of everybody interested in passengers or crew. So far as the people in England were concerned, nothing had been heard of the Pavonia for ten days, and in view of the fearful weather reported by ships arriving at Liverpool from the States, most men looked upon the ship as lost. GENERAL NEWS. According to one of the halfpenny newspapers a prospectus is being privately circulated of the Thrift Bank, Limited, an undertaking which is formed to apply the penny-ip-the-slot principle to banking. The idea is to set up automatic machines in public places, into which depositors may drop pennies and receive in return receipts. When they have deposited as much as 5s they can receive a book from the bank, in which their amounts will be entered, and when, their particular account reaches a clear sovereign they will receive interest at the rate of 2£ per cent. The idea is not a bad one, but, as it is well to be cautious ro “ private and confidential ” prospectuses, I don’t propose to apply for shares. Mr P. G. Ewington, of Auckland, writes a long letter to the Newcastle ‘ Leader ’ as a rejoinder to that of Mr G. Fowlds, which appeared therein the middle of last year. Mr Ewington writes “in the interests of truth and of workmen, who might otherwise be deluded into coming over here expecting 12s per day, when they might not fare as well as they do now.” He asserts that there are 17,000 unemployed in the colony. The ‘ Echo ’ understands that the Vienna Government will invite the Imperial authorities to abrogate the new Kauri Gum Industry Act, on the ground that it amounts to a breach of international law. Poor Mr Stead! If there is one person on earth whom he has exalted In season and out, that individual is Count Tolstoi. Nobody—he has told us again and again—understands Russia half so well os this apostolic Slav. And now, lo! and behold, the graceless Tolstoi turns and rends him. For the Czar’s good intentions the count expresses scant respect,. The count says: Let him open his ears to the wails of political victims rotting in filthy Siberian prisons if he reallv hungers for peace. Charity begins at home, and an ounce of practical mercy and justice would be more to Russians than a hundredweight of academical discussions on practical impossibilities. Tolstoi, in short, says that the Czar’s peace crusade is all pickles, and only very foolish persons knowing naught about Russia will waste breath discussing it. In the will of the Tate Mr James Weir, of St. Clouds. Blackrock, Dublin, who died on October 30, 1898, the testator* recited that some of the persons who might be entitled to legacies under his will were, he believed, resident in Australia and New Zealand; and. with a view to giving far-off claimants a fair chance of hearing of their good fortune, and at the same time preventing the undue prolongation of his executors’ responsibilities, inserted a clause declaring that every person entitled to a legacy under his will should, within a period of three years from the day of his death, send in to his trustees a claim in writing, and that any person failing to do so should absolutely forfeit all benefit which he or she might have claimed under the will. Among the legacies in the will are the following: —£l,ooo to Mrs Rachael Sandiland : £I,OOO to the children of the late Andrew Brown; £I,OOO to each of the seven children of testator’s wife’s sister, Isabella Fallow—viz., James Fallow, William Fallow, John Fallow, Gavin Fallow, Janet Fallow, Mary Fallow, and Agnes Fallow ; £I,OOO to Mrs Grace Barr, formerly Steele; £I,OOO in equal shares amongst the children of John Steele, son of Mary Steele; £I,OOO to the issue living at the death of the testator of James Weir, who died in his lifetime; £I,OOO to each of the six children of testator’s brother, Thomas Weir, deceased—-namely, James Weir, Francis Weir, Andrew Weir, Agnes Weir, Elizabeth Weir, and Margaret Woir. The executors believe that they already possess the addresses of the above-named legatees, but for extra precaution, and in pursuance of the testator’s directions, particularly request each named or indicated legatee to send in a formal written claim without delay to their solicitors, Messrs Pindlator and Co., of 53 Dame street, Dublin.