Stephen D. Peet
speaker
928 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Aug 2026
last heard 5 Aug
Stephen D. Peet’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.
Appearances
The danger from derailment and the fearful result which must follow in high bridges like this is sufficient argument for the addition of guards or some other means to prevent trains from going off.
These questions, however, are for railroad engineers to settle.
the responsibility of the railroad companies to the american public is a point more important the iron age speaking of this disaster says it is a disquieting accident it says also that we know there are plenty of cheap badly built bridges
which the engineers are watching with anxious fears and which to all appearances only stand by the grace of god the nation of february fifteenth says by such disasters and by shipwreck are lives in these days
sacrificed by the score and yet except through the clumsy machinery of a coroner's jury hardly anywhere in america is there the slightest provision made for inquiry into them here are wholesale killings in four cases out of five
someone is responsible for them there was a carelessness somewhere or a false economy has been practiced or a defective discipline maintained or some appliances of safety dispensed with or someone has run for luck and taken his chances
it may be said of this case that the coroner's jury were as thorough and faithful in their investigation as the american public could ask and yet from the class of reporters who conveyed so inadequately the results of that investigation from day to day no one was any wiser the conclusion however has been reached and the verdict
corresponds with the evidence given in this book we have no space to give to the harsh words that have been spoken these have come not only from the bereaved friends but from papers of high standing among manufacturers and others
the accident has been bad enough and the decision of the coroner's jury sufficiently condemning the action of the state legislature has also made it a matter of investigation
the letter of charles francis adams also called attention to a demand for a railroad commission and the subject has not been left as the nation intimates that it might to a coroner's jury nor even to a legislative committee but an enactment of congress has already passed to bring the subject before the committee on railroads
doubtless the results will be increased safety of travel and the holding of railroad corporations to a strict accounting by the authority of law for all accidents which may be caused by the want of skillful engineering or proper management the weston house break may have caused the projectile force of the whole train to have fallen upon the center of the defective bridge
but is there not some way of stopping trains from plunging entirely down into these fearful chasms increased appliances for stopping trains proper precautions in putting out fires the frequent inspection of bridges some method of keeping a strict account of the numbers on the train will be required
the object of this book however has not been to discuss these points as will be seen by the narrative the religious lessons of the occasion are made most prominent the author's sympathies were early called forth access to the survivors enlisted all his sensibilities
correspondence also showed how much need of consolation there was and the book was prepared under the shadow of the great horror but if the reader shall find the same comfort from a view of the lovely characters and the christian hopes which span this dark
bowed with a bow of promise the author will consider that his mission has been accomplished
end of preface chapter one of the ashtabula disaster by stephen pete ashtabula
the scene of this direful event is situated on the lake shore railway midway between the cities of cleveland and erie and about two miles from lake erie
the village itself contains nearly thirty five hundred inhabitants at the mouth of the river is another small village making in all a population of nearly four thousand between these points of the village and harbour many families of the poorer classes have made their homes the most of them being swedes
germans and irish there are a few fine residences in this part of the town but the homes of the more prominent citizens are at least a mile away near the depot there are several small places of business two or three saloons three hotels the american house the culver house and the eagle hotel kept by patrick
it was one of the worst places for a railroad disaster near the depot not six hundred yards away to the eastward was a deep and lonely gorge across this the ill-fated bridge was hung it was just at the point where the trains from the east were likely to slacken speed below that bridge the stream ran darkly
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