THE HE AT WORK 0 history of accidents involving the losa 1099 of life and property in civilized communities during daring the past half a year might properly be termed achaa a chapter of horrors to which the railroads Tail roads have been lit in one sense the principal in no corresponding period ot of time that wo we remember of and this covers nearly if not all the time within which travel has been accomplished by means of steam has there been anything remotely ap PrO preaching aching the period we speak of by in a disasters which presented such gaast ghastly lists oj beadi dying and wounded andin adin and ad in such lucli horrible forms the latest would that we plight might say ane last aj 0 these rapidly increasing holo causes was that on the boston providence railroad Kail road ain in massachusetts on monday it seems that so far no BO satisfactory is conclusion as to the cause of the disaster has beep been rp reached ached but the fact thit that a large barge iron girder near ibbe the centre centre of the brid bridge V which went down was fo found und cleft in two indicates structural weakness as to that while another theory is digs that irom from some unexplained cause one of the cars became derailed at that point and dropped upon the me timbers with such force as i to have broken anything that was not absolutely invulnerable the break thus re sultina destroying the entire bridge end and precipitating most of the cars into a chaotic mass of ruins rains below however that may be there Is no question 91 division of opinion regarding one point that the loss of the train fraia and add the bridge are not so much as a plus pins fee in comparison with the deadly ceacil loss accompanying them if it ic hat bad been that an equal number of persons died or had even been killed at that time and place or any other we might have been less impressed with the circumstance stance 6 grave enough though it would have been then but the manner in which the forty persons persona were hurled to destruction and the details attending their taking off to say nothing of others badly injured combine to produce an ah impression which repetition of and therefore familiarity with may maki make less startling but bat cannot dimi diminish with those who have humane instincts the railroads are the most mat prolific destroyers in point of frequency pf af occurrence occur renca of late but the earthquakes excel them in the matter ot ot greater total destruction per perhaps aps the former have not all told killed as many people in two de dades past as the gr great e Z physical disturbances tur bances in southern adrance alrance france did in a I 1 I 1 few W in minutes u it es less than a month ago the the toa total figures will probably never uever be riven but the estimate printed in these columns a day or two after the first shock was perhaps as near to the fact as we will ever get t this P placed ced the loss at souls diw the e loss 0 of pro property arty immediate and eow conse quentha qu quentian entla was also tremendous apolon and be yond the ranged range of even fr conjecture lik la elthier euer of t the e cases the last lipar tog for the victims has haa invariably come at a time tilde when they ibey were least pre prepared tink fait foi it when they gerein were in fai fact thinking of anything else in some 11 not most instances gaiety was the prevailing faleta feature 0 of the tune time and then without warrant fi or judgment eat came i do so