A railway accident is reported from America which exag- gerates
even the grandiose scale of American accidents. The teetotalers of the Lehigh and Wyoming Valleys, in Pennsyl- vania, arranged on Wednesday for a " parade " in honour of Father Mathew's birthday. On their return, five trains were packed with them, and. sent on in succession. The fourth train was delayed on a high embankment above the Mud River, and the fifth train ran into it, telescoping three car- riages. A hundred persons, chiefly women and children, - were killed on the spot, and more than a hundred in- jured, many of the latter being scalded as they sat pinioned by the Wirth. It is reported that the accident was caused by the driver of the fifth train jumping off too soon when he saw the fourth one. The details of suffering are thought shocking even in America, and it is probable from the accounts that the number of killed and wounded will be found greatly to exceed the estimate which we take from the Times. It is characteristic of the hour that this telegram ends with the price of the Lehigh Railway shares, and that another telegram writer tries to give with some precision the amount of loss incurred by the shareholders. If Chicago were burnt, the first thing telegraphed nowadays would be the consequent rise in wheat.
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