Buffer Coaches.
Great Britain, as we write, is not so sure of its railways as it has been. Recent terrible wrecks have shaken its confidence. The British public is now in almost the same condition as the American regarding safety on the rail, and is looking around for remedies.
One that is proposed, with chance of immediate adoption, is the placing of buffer coaches at the forward and rear end of trains. These buffer coaches will be empty, or will be used for freight; at any rate, they will be built as shock-absorbers in case of a collision. Half of the coach will telescope into the other half, plunging pistons into cylinders where the air cushion will form a powerful spring. Thus the fearful impact of another train will largely be taken up.
It is a wise scheme, and will certainly work if the cars are built. It is a method that has worked for ages on the railway of life, where collisions as deadly as any on steel rails occur weekly, daily, hourly. These are the clash of opposing temperaments, plans, ideals, in the same family, or business enterprise, or church, or social organization. What clamor of words! What rending of efficiency! What heart burnings!
That is, if no human buffer coach is in either train. But blessed are these calm, friendly, sympathetic, fair-minded souls, so ready to see others' viewpoints, so sagacious in the interpretation of hearts to heads, so quick and confident in reconciliations! I know them—a few of them—and so do you. They are the safety of this explosive old earth. In their presence opposites combine, hostilities melt away, controversies are altogether forgotten. They have endless patience, endless pity. Their tact is ready for any emergency. God bless them, and God help me to be one of them.