The great Railroad accident in England.
Shocking Scenes.--The English papers are filled with details of the terrible railroad accident on the London and Brighton Railway. It seems that two trains, a Brighton excursion and the London Parliamentary, came into collision in the Clayton tunnel, near Brighton. One was backing out, the other entering, the signal men at either end having confounded their signals. Within a very short distance of the mouth of the tunnel a fearful crash ensued, the second train backing having come into violent collision with the other train, which was running forward. The shrieks and cries are described as being most fearful and heartrending, the darkness tending to heighten the terror of those who were uninjured, and leaving them powerless to aid the wounded. The engine of the Parliamentary train had smashed the last carriage in the excursion train, which had mixed compartments for luggage at one end, passenger seats in the middle, and a guard's break at the other end.The locomotive had been pitched over the last carriage to the back of the last carriage but one, and shivered it into fragments. This carriage comprised four compartments, each containing ten persons. The passengers were
seattered and mutilated in all directions; several were scalded with the boiling water from the engine, and their yells of agony were pitiable in the extreme. All the available assistance was as speedily as possible procured from Brighton, and upon the fragments of the carriages being removed, twenty-two persons were found to be dead. The engine had literally sunk upon the second carriage, and the bodies of several of the sufferers were underneath. They had either been smashed or scalded to death. One woman had both her legs cut off just above the knees, and she was quite black in the face. Another woman, had her scalp taken off, and both her arms broken. One man had his face crushed in such a manner as to force his eye-balls from his head. As soon as possible the wounded, the dying and the dead were conveyed to Brighton. The latest official accounts estimate the killed at 25, and the wounded at 100-- some of the latter are not expected to recover.
