Railway accidents, railway frauds, railway impertinence are the staple of our daily newspaper-reading. Railway chairmen and directors are descending to the knavery, extortion, impudence, and brutality from which cabmen are rising in the scale of manners and morals. And, as aforesaid, the British public stands all this with passive mournfulness, quiet endurance, meek, inactive expostulation. [Illustration: RAILWAY UNDERTAKING TOUTER: "Going by this train, Sir?" PASSENGER: "'M? Eh? Yes." TOUTER: "Allow me, then, to give you one of my cards, Sir."] The directors of the L. & N.W.R. are severely criticised for overworking their engine drivers, _à propos_ of a well-authenticated case of a man who had been on duty for thirty hours without relief or opportunity to rest. "If dividends demand economy, and economy necessitates the employment of one man to do the work of six, the only thing to be done for public safety is to get a man with an iron constitution," and _Punch_ accordingly suggests that the directors should provide themselves with engine drivers entirely composed of that metal. Complaints of dangerous railways continue to the end of the period under review, and in 1856 _Punch_ is still of opinion that we might take a leaf out of the book of the Russians, who carry surgeons on their trains. Undertakers he had already suggested as a part of the normal equipment of expresses. [Sidenote: _"Bradshaw: A Mystery"_] A witty bishop once scandalized his hearers by bracketing _Bradshaw_ with the Bible as an indispensable book. Bradshaw's _Railway Time Tables_ were first issued in 1839; the monthly guide dates from December, 1841; it was not, however, until 1856 that _Punch_ began to realize the elements of comedy underlying that austere document, and utilized them in a little play called _Bradshaw: A Mystery_, describing the separation, adventures and ultimate reunion of two harassed lovers. Love may laugh at locksmiths, but _Bradshaw_ is another matter. Here is the happy ending of this romantic libel:--