After referring to the fact that simplicity in construction and simplicity in working were two different things, and that, almost invariably, a certain degree of complication in construction is necessary to secure simplicity in working,--after pointing this out he went on to add that,-- "Simplicity as regards the application of railway brakes is not obtained by the system now more commonly employed of brake-handles to be turned by different men in different parts of the train; but is obtained when, by more complicated construction an engine-driver is able easily in an instant to apply ample brake-power at pleasure with more or less force to every wheel of his train; is obtained when, every time an engine-driver starts, or attempts to start his train, the brake itself informs him if it is out of order; and is still more obtained when, on the occasion of an accident and the separation of a coupling, the brakes will unfailingly apply themselves on every wheel of the train without the action of the engine-driver or guards, [brakemen], and before even they have time to realize the necessity for it. This is true simplicity in such a case, and that system of continuous brakes which best accomplishes such results in the shortest space of time is so far preferable to all others." CHAPTER XXI. THE RAILROAD JOURNEY RESULTING IN DEATH. One day in May, 1847, as the Queen of Belgium was going from Verviers to Brussels by rail, the train in which she was journeying came into collision with another train going in the opposite direction. There was naturally something of a panic, and, as royalty was not then accustomed to being knocked about with railroad equality, some of her suite urged the queen to leave the train and to finish her journey by carriage. The contemporaneous court reporter then went on to say, in that language which is so peculiarly his own,--"But her Majesty, as courageously as discreetly, declined to set that example of timidity, and she proceeded to Brussels by the railway." In those days a very exaggerated idea was universally entertained of the great danger incident to travel by rail. Even then, however, had her Majesty, who was doubtless a very sensible woman, happened to be familiar with the statistics of injuries received by those traveling respectively by rail and by carriage, she certainly never on any plea of danger would have been induced to abandon her railroad train in order to trust herself behind horse-flesh. By pursuing the course urged upon her, the queen would have multiplied her chances of accident some sixty fold. Strange as the statement sounds even now, such would seem to have been the fact. In proportion to the whole number carried, the accidents to passengers in "the good old days of stage-coaches" were, as compared to the present time of the railroad dispensation, about as sixty to one. This result, it is true, cannot