"The Railway King."

Lake County Press, Issue 907, 19 April 1900, Page 7

"The Railway King."

Whatever the faults of George Hudson, i'ey did not weigh him down with remorse. So says " Our Railways," one or Messrs. Ca-ssell's publications. His faith in his own motives was never shaken ; and on the Continent, where he plunged with untiring energy into new but seldom successful schemes, he kept a tolerablv light heart, and delighted to speak of his former greatness, of the business and social whirl in which he lived when evorv one. from courtier to beggar, was burning with the lust of gold. " Sydney Smith, sir. the Iter. Sydney Smith, the great wit, first called me the ' Railway King' : and 1 remember vry well that he made a very pretty speech about it. saying that while some monarchs had won their title to fame by bloodshed and by tlie misery they inflicted on theii fellow-creatures, I had come to my throne by my own peaceful exertions and by a course of probity and enterprise." Such stories as this he told to the curious acquaintances he gossiped with in cafes and on the sunny side of boulevards ; and though he had become only a shadowy counterfeit of the pompous, brusque railway dictator, he aped his old manner, and tried to make strangers believe that he cut a considerable figure in the world still. But he had lost the opportunity or the knack of making money. This man, who once " held the key to untold treasures," sank into poverty ; and one story bluntly says that, he frequently went hungry to hod. Generous help was given to him by forniei friends, however, and his closing days were not embittered by neglect or privation. Me di<-d in London on 14th December, ISVI. clinging to the last to the memory of his old prosperity, and finding, like Captain Gann in Thackeray's ■• Advoro-u-es of Philip." sonv melnn- ■ cho)-- ■ ■••< in tlie recollection of his The quill pens now used in England come from Germany and the Netherlands. The wettest place in America is Neah Ray, in Washington ; over li!3in. of rain fall there every year.

lews Which Siliis I'eopic. ratal Effects of Evil Reports* When great calamities occur we hear much of ihe attending details, but, as a rule, nothing of the disastrous consequences in connection with private individuate concerned in some way with the said calamities. As a matter of fact, the news of some great disaster has proved fatal, on more than one occasion, to the person to whom it has been conveyed. (inly tiie other day a case occurred. An elderly gentleman, resident in the West of London, one evening bought a paper containing the first intimation that Dr. Jameson had inarched on .Johannesburg with a force of Bechuanaland police. The report proceeded to State thai the latter force had met with defeat at the hands of the Boers, with much attending slaughter. t On reading the lastmentioned fact the gentleman became very paie and much agitated. He complained of feeling faint, and expressed a desire to go to bed. In the night he became worse. He grew delirious, muttering cries for " My hoy. my poor boy !" A doctor was sent for. but despite'his efforts the old man sank, till, thirty-six hours after reading the paper, he diod. The explanation was that he had a son, who, having got into some petty disgrace in London, had, some months before, shipped for the Cape, and had joined the Chartered Company's force. In his last letter he had made some indefinite allusion to a coming encounter. On reading the newspaper his father had evidently feared that the worst had happened to his son, and it was this shock that made hi in ill and ultimately caused his death. It afterwards transpired that his son was not among the force that accompanied Dr. Jameson. Some three or four years ago, when the hill tribes of India were occasioning our officials some anxiety, there suddenly came the rumour of an actual outbreak. A gentleman carrying on business in the City, and whose affairs were largely bound up in Indian bonds, hail for some davs past watched events with the gravest* anxiety. If war ensued lie knew that to him monetary results would be calamitous, and the contemplation worried him beyond measure. He was in his office one afternoon, brooding over his- imminent danger, when, glancing through the window, he chanced to espy a newspaper placard containing the announcement "Fighting in India." He reeled bark, and to the profound astonishment of a clerk seated at a desk near, fell to the ground in a fit. A doctor was immediately sent for. but shortly after his arrival the unconscious man expired. At the time of the terrible railway disaster at. Thirsk, iwme two or three years ago. there was living in London a voting lady, the fiancee of a gentleman who had started in the express which was afterwards wrecked. She had herself seen him o«, The next day she opened a paper, and the first, thing that caught her eye was the announcement of the awful accident. Before she had time to read a line she fainted. She was conveyed to her room, where, after a prolonged period, she returned to consciousness. Almost immediately afterwards a letter arrived from her lover saying he was safe and sound, but this, contrary to expectations, only had the effect of sending the girl into another faint. For some days she lingered in a vorv weak condition, between life and'death, belt she .never really recovered from the awful shock she had sustained. Her nerves were completely shattered and within three months she ceased to live. Equally sad was the case which happened in Durham some few years ago. In a large coal mine there one day occurred an explosion, and among the men reported to hi buried in the shaft was a voting mine? who had only been married some six week?. The news of the catastrophe rencbed the ears of the poor vomit wife at home. She stood silent." staring like a mad thing for a moment. Then suddenly she clapped her hand over her lwnrr. and, without warning, dropped to *he ground in an unconscious condition. Before a doctor could be fetched sh-J was dead. The husband was ultimately saved.