• The utter recklessness of life in America, of which
Mr_
John Burns has recently been speaking, has been illustrated afresh by a frightful accident in Montana. It is, we believe, illegal to store explosives in railway stations, but the pre- caution has either not been taken in this State, or the law has been deliberately broken. At all events, three cars laden with explosives were standing in the station, near Butte Montana, on January 15th, when one of them caught fire, it is believed from a neighbouring building, and three explosions occurred in succession. The earth was excavated to a depth of 75 ft., sixty-five of the spectators were killed, and about a hundred more were terribly wounded. The houses in the neighbourhood were wrecked, and the damage to property is estimated at £200,000. Reuter describes the explosive as "giant gunpowder," but it seems clear that it was some com- pound of nitro-glycerine, for no form of gunpowder explodes downwards, and the energy of the explosion was greater than that of gunpowder usually is. Perhaps both were stored on
the cars ; and we only wonder there were not also a few pounds' weight of lucifer matches.
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