NEWS OF TILE WEEK.
ANOTHER and still more frightful railway accident was re- ported on Saturday. On Friday the tidal train which left Folke- stone for London at 2.30 approached a bridge between Headcorn and Staplehurst. The roadway on this bridge was under repair, but the platelayers, though they knew that 40 feet of the rail was absent, only posted a flag 150 feet before the weak place. The train at the broken point of course quitted the line, and the engine, break, luggage van, guard'svan, and six carriages, all went over the bridge. The passengers were thrown together in heaps, smashed, mangled, and suffocated, ten dying on the spot, while nearly fifty more were severely injured. Seven of the ten killed were ladies, and the reports of the suffering endured by some of the survivors, who found their wives or relatives, but a moment before in full health, smashed or disfigured almost beyond identification, are heartrending. The primary fault seems to have lain with the foreman of the plate- layers, who has been arrested. His excuse is that he made a mis- take of two hours as to the time at which the train would be due, but surely a sufficient warning by telegraph or signal might have been given as the train came on.
