The Iron Horse, Robert Michael Ballantyne [good ebook reader .TXT] 📗

up to admiration something rare and beautiful. "Just look at _me_. I'm off on a tour of three months through England, Scotland, and Ireland-- not for my health, madam, as you may see--but for scientific purposes. Well, what do I do? I go to the Railway Passengers Assurance Company's Office, 64 Cornhill, London, (I like to be particular, you see, as becomes one who professes to be an amateur student of the exact sciences), and I take out what they call a Short Term Policy of Insurance against accidents of all kinds for a thousand pounds--1000 pounds, observe--for which I pay the paltry sum of 30 shillings--1 pound, 10 shillings. Well, what then? Away I go, leaving behind me, with perfect indifference, a wife and two little boys. Remarkable little boys, madam, I assure you. Perfect marvels of health and intelligence, both of 'em--two little boys, madam, which have not been equalled since Cain and Abel were born. Every one says so, with the exception of a few of the cynical and jaundiced among men and women. And, pray, why am I so indifferent? Just because they are provided for. They have a moderately good income secured to them as it is, and the 1000 pounds which I have insured on my life will render it a competence in the event of my being killed. It will add 50 pounds a year to their income, which happens to be the turning-point of comfort. And what of myself? Why, with a perfectly easy conscience, I may go and do what I please. If I get drowned in Loch Katrine--what matter? If I break my neck in the Gap of Dunloe--what matter? If I get lost and frozen on the steeps of Ben Nevis or Goatfell--what matter? If I am crushed to death in a railway accident, or get entangled in machinery and am torn to atoms--still I say, what matter? 1000 pounds must _at_ _once_ be paid down to my widow and children, and all because of the pitiful sum of 30 shillings.

"But suppose," continued the enthusiastic man, deepening his tone as he became more earnest, "suppose that I am _not_ killed, but only severely injured and mangled so as to be utterly unfit to attend to my worldly affairs--what then?"

Mrs Tipps shuddered to think of "what then."

"Why," continued the enthusiastic gentleman, "I shall in that case be allowed from the company 6 pounds a week, until recovered, or, in the event of my sinking under my injuries within three months after the accident, the whole sum of 1000 pounds will be paid to my family."

Mrs Tipps smiled and nodded her head approvingly, but Mrs Marrot still looked dubious.

"But, sir," she said, "supposin' you don't get either hurt or killed?"

"Why then," replied the elderly gentleman, "I'm all right of course, and only 50 shillings out of pocket, which, you must admit, is but a trifling addition to the expenses of a three months' tour. Besides, have I not had three months of an easy mind, and of utter regardlessness as to my life and limbs? Have not my wife and boys had three months of easy minds and indifference to my life and limbs also! Is not all that cheaply purchased at 30 shillings? while the sum itself, I have the satisfaction of knowing, goes to increase the funds of that excellent company which enables you and me and thousands of others to become so easy-minded and reckless, and which, at the same time, pays its fortunate shareholders a handsome dividend."

"Really, sir," said Mrs Tipps, laughing, "you talk so enthusiastically of this Insurance Company that I almost suspect you to be a director of it."

"Madam," replied the elderly gentleman with some severity, "if I _were_ a director of it, which I grieve to say I am not, I should only be doing my simple duty to it and to you in thus urging it on your attention. But I am altogether uninterested in it, except as a philanthropist. I see and feel that it does good to myself and to my fellow-men, _therefore_ I wish my fellow-men to appreciate it more highly than they do, for it not only insures against accident by railway, but against all kinds of accidents; while its arrangements are made to suit the convenience of the public in every possible way."

"Why, madam," he continued, kindling up again and polishing his head violently, "only think, for the small sum of 4 pounds paid annually, it insures that you shall have paid to your family, if you chance to be killed, the sum of 1000 pounds, or, if not killed, 6 pounds a week while you are totally laid up, and 1 pound, 10 shillings a week while you are only partially disabled. And yet, would you believe it, many persons who see the value of this, and begin the wise course of insurance, go on for only a few years and then foolishly give it up--disappointed, I presume, that no accident has happened to them! See, here is one of their pamphlets!"

He pulled a paper out of his pocket energetically, and put on a pair of gold spectacles, _through_ which he looked when consulting the pamphlet, and _over_ which he glanced when observing the effect of what he read on Mrs Tipps.

"What do I find--eh? ha--yes--here it is--a Cornish auctioneer pushed back a window shutter--these are the very words, madam--what more he did to that shutter, or what it did to him, is not told, but he must have come by _some_ damage, because he received 55 pounds. A London clerk got his eye injured by a hair-pin in his daughter's hair--how suggestive that is, madam! what a picture it calls up of a wearied toil-worn man fondling his child of an evening--pressing his cheek to her fair head-- and what a commentary it is (he became very stern here) on the use of such barbarous implements as hair-pins! I am not punning, madam; I am much too serious to pun; I should have used the word savage instead of barbarous.

"Now, what was the result? This company gave that clerk compensation to the extent of 26 pounds. Again, a medical practitioner fell through the floor of a room. It must have been a bad, as it certainly was a strange, fall--probably he was heavy and the floor decayed--at all events that fall procured him 120 pounds. A Cardiff agent was bathing his feet--why, we are not told, but imagination is not slow to comprehend the reason, when the severity of our climate is taken into account; he broke the foot-pan--a much less comprehensible thing--and the breaking of that foot-pan did him damage, for which he was compensated with 52 pounds, 16 shillings. Again, a merchant of Birkenhead was paid 20 pounds for playing with his children!"

"Dear me, sir!" exclaimed Mrs Marrot in surprise, "surely--"

"Of course, my good woman," said the elderly gentleman, "you are to understand that he came by some damage while doing so, but I give you the exact words of the pamphlet. It were desirable that a _little_ more information had been given just to gratify our curiosity. Now, these that I have read are under the head of `Accidents at Home.' Under other `Heads,' we find a farmer suffocated by the falling in of a sand-pit, for which his representatives received 1000 pounds. Another thousand is paid to the heirs of a poor dyer who fell into a vat of boiling liquor; while, in regard to smaller matters, a warehouseman, whose finger caught in the cog-wheel of a crane, received 30 pounds. And, again, here is 1000 pounds to a gentleman killed in a railway accident, and 100 pounds to a poor woman. The latter had insured for a single trip in an excursion train at a charge of two-pence, while the former had a policy of insurance extending over a considerable period, for which he probably paid twenty or thirty shillings. These are but samples, madam, of the good service rendered to sorrowing humanity by this assurance company, which, you must observe, makes no pretensions to philanthropic aims, but is based simply on business principles. And I find that the total amount of compensation paid in this manner daring one year by this Company amounts to about 72,000 pounds."

As Mrs Marrot yawned at this point and Mrs Tipps appeared somewhat mystified, the enthusiastic gentleman smiled, put away his pamphlet, and wisely changed the subject. He commented on the extreme beauty of the weather, and how fortunate this state of things was for the people who went to the country for a day's enjoyment. Thus pleasantly he whiled away the time, and ingratiated himself with Gertie, until they arrived at the station where Mrs Tipps and Mrs Marrot had to get out, and where many of the excursionists got out along with them. While the former went their several ways, arranging to meet in the evening and return together by the same train, the latter scattered themselves over the neighbouring common and green fields, and, sitting down under the hedgerows among the wild-flowers, pic-nicked in the sunshine, or wandered about the lanes, enjoying the song of birds and scent of flowers, and wishing, perchance, that their lot had been cast among the green pastures of the country, rather than amid the din and smoke and turmoil of the town.


CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.


DETAILS A TERRIBLE ACCIDENT.

In due time that holiday came to a close, and the excursionists returned to the station where their train awaited them. Among the rest came Mrs Tipps and Mrs Marrot, but they did not arrive together, and therefore, much to their annoyance, failed to get into the same carriage.

The weather, which up to that time had kept fine, began to lower, and, just as the train started, a smart thunder-shower fell, but, being under cover, the holiday-makers heeded it not. Upon the whole they were an orderly band of excursionists. Some of the separate groups were teetotallers, and only one or two showed symptoms of having sought to increase their hilarity by the use of stimulants.

When the shower began, John Marrot and his mate put on their pilot-cloth coats, for the screen that formed their only protection from the weather was a thin flat one, without roof or sides, forming only a partial protection from wind and rain.

Night had begun to descend before the train left the station, and as the lowering clouds overspread the sky, the gloom rapidly increased until it became quite dark.

"We are going to have a bad night of it," observed John Marrot as his mate examined the water-gauge.

"Looks like it," was Garvie's curt reply.

The clatter of the engine and howling of the wind, which had by that time risen to a gale, rendered conversation difficult; the two men therefore confined themselves to the few occasional words that were requisite for the proper discharge of their duties. It was not a night on which the thoughts of an engine-driver were likely to wander much. To drive an excursion train in a dark night through a populous country over a line which was crowded with traffic, while the rain beat violently on the little round windows in the screen, obscuring them and rendering it difficult to keep a good look-out was extremely anxious work, which claimed the closest and most undivided attention. Nevertheless, the thoughts of John Marrot did wander a little