The Thirsk Hallway Disaster.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6544, 10 December 1892, Page 4

The Thirsk Hallway Disaster.

['Frisco Mail News.]

A terrible railroad wreck happened on the morning of November 2, near the town of Thirsk, in Yorkshire. The second section of the East Coast express from Edinburgh and London ran into a freight train at Manor House station. The track at this point runs along the embankment. The engine of the express train, on striking the freight, reared up, toppled over, and fell into a field at the side of the track, followed by all the passenger coaches. The passengers were in many instances pinned under the debris, aud several were burned to death before help could reach them. It is certain that thirteen persons were killed. The fire burned fiercely until noon, the flames then having devoured the entire wreckage. The occupants of one carriage suffered horrible agonies of mind, as they were solidly imprisoned watching the flames approaching them. They were rescued just in the nick of time. The accident was one of the worst in the history of English railroading, being apparently due entirely to bad management. The watchman, who was found asleep on his box after the collision, wept bitterly as he related his story. He admitted his responsibility in failing to display the proper signals, but said it was impossible for him to keep awake, as he had been nursing his sick child by day and working nights for some time back. The child died on Tuesday, Ist November. The father asked the local agent for two days' leave of absence, but •was refused, though he protested his inability to perform his duties. The help from Thirak and York was very tardy in arriving, though word of the disaster had been at once conveyed to both places. A passenger named MacK«nzie went raving crazy while witnessing the flames slowly roasting his wife to death. This disaster is likely to result in a boom for the American style of coaches, and especially sleepers. The ordinary carriages, some ahead of the Pullman sleeper, and some behind it, were all smashed to pieces, while the Pullman, though wrecked and twisted, resisted the shock in a manner marvellous to English eyes.

At the Pan-Presbyteriau Conference at Toronto, the Rev. Dr. E. Van Styke, of New York, treated of the Church's unsolved problems and unemployed resources. Everywhere, he said, caste prevailed, the educated and ignorant, the rich and the poor, take no great interest in each other, and the problem was how to destroy this caste. Another great problem following from the first was the relation between capital and labor, monopolies, combinations for improper purposes. Strikes, boycott, and Anarchist plots, were severely condemned. Right could never come through wrong agencies, and right relations between labor and capital Mould never be established until they were anchored in the principles of the Church of Christ. Right teaching from the pulpit, and wise legislation, must be the means by which these wrongs must be overcome, and peace and goodwill secured to mankind. Another unsolved problem was the scepticism of to-day, which was largely the result of discontent with their temporal conditions, which prevailed on all hands, and the feeling that the Church was not doing her whole duty to relievo the oppressed. The unemployed resources of the Church he held to be : 1. The large class of consecrated young men not systematically employed in Church work. 2. The great number of unmarried women who should be engaged in visiting and Bible-reading. 3. The full Scriptural service of the eldership and diaconate. 4. The unconsecrated wealth of the Church. 5. The social power of the Church in promoting the idea of closer Christian fellowship.

A writer, commenting on the difference between French and English women, says : — " The Frenchwoman can finesse, and understands that every truth is not to be blurted out. Still, there is a splendid frankness in the way in which she goes forward on whatever path she is following. That sort of snobbism that Thackeray tried to write down has no hold on her. Xo attempt is made by her to pass herself off for having a larger income than she really enjoys. I have often admired the freedom from snobbish pretension of the wife of many a young professional man, and have known some such who were qualified by good looks, education, and fairly good dowries to play ornamental parts in life. But they preferred to throw in their lots with those of struggling men of ability, who, if rich in well-founded hopes of succeeding in their respective walks of life, were far too poor to keep up a good genteel establishment. What do you think of the highly accomplished wife of a rising young barrister, who may any day come forward as a candidate for Parliament, preparing and serving a dinner for a dozen friends, and playing the part of hostess with a good grace? There was no bungling in either the cooking or the service, nor any crossness or flurry. The hus- j band, I may add, helped in many ways before the guests arrived. I was asked for I a particular reason to come early, and found him laying the cloth. He arranged prettily the butter and the radishes, and ran out on errands, Some of the most famous persons iv Europe were expected. One was the illustrious German chemist Hoffman, and another an Italian statesman.

It may not be generally known tli.-vt the promoters of the Canadian Pacific Railway determined that strong drink should not be sold within ten miles of the line during its construction. One result was that the railway, 4,000 miles in length, was completed -without the commission of a single serious crime, although 30,000 men, of almost every nationalit}', were engaged in the work.

Habitual drunkards in Norway and .Sweden are cured by a most ingenious system of treatment. Fed on nothing but bread steeped in wine, they soon become so disgusted at the taste of alcohol that the work of reformation is speedily accomplished.

Since the Franco-Prussian war Germany has spent nearly £450,000,000 on her army and navy.

New .South Wales chums to possess the largest machine sheep-shearing shed in the world, the Burrawang station. During the late clip it ran 88 Burzon and Ball machines, and the saving over hand work is equal to oO tons of wool, sufficient, the prop<ietors say, to pay for the erection of the sheds and cost of the machines. Total output of wool for season, '$700 bales, and a " record" was established of 445 bales in five days with 82 men, beating any previous record by 31 sheep.