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year 1880-81 the data compiled by the railroad commissioners of Massachusetts and published in their reports give as the total number of persons killed and injured in the United States 2,126, as against 8,215 upon which the comparisons in the above table are based. If we substitute in this table the former number for the latter it would reduce the number of injured per million passengers in the United States to 10.6, about the same as on the European railways.

Edward Bates Dorsey gives the following interesting table of comparisons in his valuable work English and American Railroads Compared:

Passengers Killed and Injured from causes beyond their own control on all the Railroads of the United Kingdom and those of the States of New York and Massachusetts in 1884.

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From this it will be seen that in the United Kingdom the average distance a passenger may travel before being killed is about equal to twice the distance of the Earth from the Sun. In New York he may travel a distance greater than that of Mars from the Sun; and in Massachusetts he can comfort himself with the thought that he may travel twentyseven millions of miles further than the distance from Jupiter to the Sun before suffering death on the rail.

The most encouraging feature of these statistics is the fact that the number of railway accidents per mile in

the United

States has

shown a

marked de

crease each

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In the year 1840 the number of miles of railway per 100,000 inhabitants in the different countries named was as follows: United States, 20; United Kingdom, 3; Europe, 1; in the year 1882, United States, 210; United Kingdom, 52; Europe, 34.

In the year 1886, the last year in which full reports are published, the total number of miles in the United States was 137,986, the number of passengers carried, 382,284,972, the number carried one mile, 9,659,698,294, the average distance travelled per passenger, 25.27 miles.

In Europe the first class travel is exceedingly small and the third-class constitutes the largest portion of

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Boston Passenger Station, Providence Division, Old Colony Railroad.

ures adopted by the Massachusetts commissions, the number of persons injured in the year 1880-81 was 2,126, and in 1886-87 2,483, while in the same time the number of miles in operation has increased from 93,349 to 137,986.

The amounts paid annually by railways in satisfaction of claims for damages to passengers are serious items of expenditure, and in the United States have reached in some years nearly two millions of dollars. About half of the States limit the amount of damages in case of death to $5,000, the States of Virginia, Ohio, and Kansas to $10,000, and the remainder have no statutory limit.

United Kingdom.
France
Germany
United States...

the whole of the travel is first-class, as will be seen from the following table:

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The third-class travel in this country is better known as immigrant travel. The percentages given in the above table for the United States are based upon an average of the numbers of passengers of each class carried on the principal through lines. If all the roads were included, the percentages of the second and third class travel would be still less.

That which is of more material inter

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The rate named as the first-class fare for the railways in the United States is strictly speaking the average earnings per passenger per mile, and includes all classes; but as the first-class passengers constitute about ninety-nine per centum of the travel the amount does not differ materially from the actual firstclass fare. In the State of New York the first-class fare does not exceed two cents, which is about equal to the thirdclass fare in Europe, and heat, good ventilation, ice water, toilet arrangements, and free carriage of a liberal amount of baggage are supplied, while in Europe few of these comforts are furnished.

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XII.

A LONDON LIFE.

By Henry James.

PART FOURTH.

HE next day, at five o'clock, she drove to Queen's Gate, turning to Lady Davenant in her distress in order to turn somewhere. Her old friend was at home and, by extreme good fortune, alone; looking up from her book, in her place by the window, she gave the girl, as she came in, a sharp glance over her glasses. This glance was acquisitive; she said nothing, but laying down her book stretched out her two gloved hands. Laura took them

and she drew her down toward her, so that the girl sunk on her knees and in a moment hid her face, sobbing, in the old woman's lap. There was nothing said for some time; Lady Davenant only pressed her tenderly-stroked her with her hands. "Is it very bad?" she asked at last. Then Laura got up, saying as she took a seat, "Have you heard of it, and do people know it?"

"I haven't heard anything. Is it very bad?" Lady Davenant repeated.

"We don't know where Selina is-and her maid's gone."

Lady Davenant looked at her visitor a moment. "Lord, what an ass!" she then ejaculated, putting the paper-knife into her book to keep her place.

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"And

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whom has she persuaded to take her with her dry, dismal eyes.
Charles Crispin?" she added.
his divorce-it's too hideous!"

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"And he's another," interrupted the old woman. "And who supposes Geordie and Ferdy?"

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Bless me, won't one do?" Lady

"I don't know; it's all black dark- Davenant asked. "We shall have some ness!" pretty reading."

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'In peace! cried Laura; "with my wretched sister leading such a life?"

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Oh, my dear, I dare say it will be very comfortable; I am sorry to say anything in favor of such doings, but it very often is. Don't worry; you take her too hard. Has she gone abroad?" the old lady continued. "I dare say she has gone to some pretty, amusing place."

"I don't know anything about it. I only know she is gone. I was with her last evening, and she left me without a word."

"Well, that was better. I hate 'em when they make parting scenes; it's too mawkish!"

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"Lionel has people watching them," said the girl ; agents, detectives, I don't know what. He has had them for a long time; I didn't know it."

"Do you mean you would have told her if you had? What is the use of detectives now? Isn't he rid of her?"

'Oh, I don't know, he's as bad as she; he talks too horribly-he wants everyone to know it," Laura groaned.

"And has he told his mother?" "I suppose so; he rushed off to see her at noon. She'll be overwhelmed." "Overwhelmed? Not a bit of it!" cried Lady Davenant, almost gayly. "When did anything in the world overwhelm her, and what do you take her for?

She'll only make some delightful odd speech. As for people knowing it," she added, "they'll know it whether he wants them or not. My poor child, how long do you expect to make believe?"

"Lionel expects some news to-night," Laura said. "As soon as I know where she is I shall start."

"Start for where?"

"To go to her, to do something." Something preposterous, my dear. Do you expect to bring her back?"

"He won't take her in," said Laura,

"It's awful, awful, awful!" murmured Laura.

"Yes, they oughtn't to be allowed to publish them. I wonder if we couldn't stop that. At any rate he had better be quiet; tell him to come and see me."

"You won't influence him; he's dreadful against her. Such a house as it is to-day!"

"Well, my dear, naturally."

"Yes, but it's terrible for me; it's all more dreadful than I can bear.” "My dear child, come and stay with me," said the old woman, gently.

"Oh, I can't desert her; I can't abandon her!"

"Desert-abandon? What a way to put it! Hasn't she abandoned you?"

"She has no heart-she's too base!" said the girl. Her face was white, and the tears now began to rise to her eyes again.

Lady Davenant got up and came and sat on the sofa beside her; she put her arms round her and the two women embraced. "Your room is all ready," the old lady remarked. And then she said, "When did she leave you? When did you see her last?"

"Oh, in the strangest, maddest, cruelest way, the way most insulting to me. We went to the opera together and she left me there with a gentleman. We know nothing about her since."

"With a gentleman ?"

"With Mr. Wendover-that American, and something too dreadful happened."

"Dear me, did he kiss you?" asked Lady Davenant.

Laura got up quickly, turning away. "Good-bye, I'm going, I'm going!" And in reply to an irritated, protesting exclamation from her companion she went on, "Anywhere-anywhere to get away!"

"To get away from your American?" "I asked him to marry me!" The girl turned round with her tragic face.

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