The worst railway accident even of 1876 occurred at Ashtabula,
Northern Ohio, on the 20th December, at 8 o'clock. The Pacific mail train was passing Ashtabula Creek by an iren bridge seventy- five feet high, when the bridge—possibly from the cold, for the train was moving slowly—snapped, and the cars were precipitated seventy-five feet down upon the ice. The ice broke, the saloon stoves set fire to the cars, and 120 persons were smashed, drowned, or burned to death on the spot. Some fifty-two others were wounded, so that many will die, and only seven escaped unhurt by a sort of miracle. The sufferings of those who did not die at once, seem to have been most horrible, as the train was burned up, and owing to the violence of the storm, assistance did not ' arrive for many hours. No explanation is offered of the accident, which may have been due to a desire to throw expenses for repairs into next year's accounts, and no other Company will take the more heed in consequence. In America, as in China, a few lives less or more make no difference.
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