e
and comical; for instance, they involve the running of independent pilot
locomotives in advance of all night passenger trains, and it was, by the
way, on a pioneer locomotive of this description, on the return trip of
the excursion party from Manchester after the accident to Mr. Huskisson,
that the first recorded attempt was made in the direction of our present
elaborate system of night signals. On that occasion obstacles were
signalled to those in charge of the succeeding trains by a man on the
pioneer locomotive, who used for that purpose a bit of lighted tarred
rope. Through all the years between 1830 and 1841, nevertheless, not a
single serious railroad disaster had to be recorded. Indeed, the
luck--for it was nothing else--of these earlier times was truly amazing.
Thus on this same Liverpool and Manchester road, as a first-class train
on the morning of April 17, 1836, was moving at a speed of some thirty
miles an hour, an axle broke under the first passenger carriage, causing
the whole train to leave the rails and throwing it down the embankment,
which at that point was twenty feet high. The carriages were rolled
over, and the passengers in them turned topsy-turvy; nor, as they were
securely locked in, could they even extricate themselves when at last the
wreck of the train reached firm bearings. And yet no one was killed."

RIVAL CONTRACTORS AND THE BLOTTING PAD.

In rails, the same system has prevailed. Ironmasters have been pitted
against each other, as to which should produce an apparent rail at the
lowest price. At the outset of railways the rails were made of iron.
Competition gradually produced rails in which a core, of what is
technically called "cinder," is covered up with a skin of iron; and the
cleverest foreman for an ironmaster was the man who could make rails with
the maximum of cinder and the minimum of iron. In more than one instance
has it been known in relaying an old line the worn-out rails have been
sold at a higher price per ton than the new ones were bought for; yet
this would hardly open the eyes of the buyers. The contrivances which
are resorted to to get hold of one another's prices beforehand by
competing contractors are manifold; and, when they attend in person, they
commonly put off the filling up of their tender till the last moment.
Once a shrewd contractor found himself at the same inn with a rival who
always trod close on his heels. He was followed about and
cros