station to station. Signals for the day and signals for the night gave constant and timely notice of the position of switches.
No, they have no railroad accidents to speak of in France. But why? Because when one occurs, somebody has to hang for it![1] Not hang, may be, but be punished at least with such vigor of emphasis as to make negligence a thing to be shuddered at by railroad officials for many a day thereafter. “No blame attached to the officers”—that lying and disaster-breeding verdict so common to our soft-hearted juries. is seldom
“THIRTY MINUTES FOR DINNER!”—FRANCE.
rendered in France. If the trouble occurred in the conductor’s department, that officer must suffer if his subordinate cannot be proven guilty; if in the engineer’s department. and the case be similar, the engineer must answer.
The Old Travelers—those delightful parrots who have “been here before.” and know more about the country than Louis Napoleon knows now or ever will know.—tell us these things, and we believe them because they are pleasant things to believe. and because they are plausible and savor of the
- ↑ They go on the principle that it is better that one innocent man should suffer than five hundred.
