In 1830 the Lancaster, Ohio school board observed with one voice that if God had meant "his creatures" to travel at the "frightful speed of 15 miles per hour He would have foretold it through His holy prophets." Twenty-five years later English tourist Charles Weld recorded a harrowing journey he made from Cumberland, Md. to Washington, D.C. Trying to make up for time lost in delays, the conductor pressed the train faster and faster. Soon the train lurched from side to side with such violence that the cars began to come apart around the passengers. To almost no one's surprise, the train eventually jumped the track. Emerging from the wreck (lucky to be alive), Weld castigated the conductor, but to his amazement none of the other passengers joined him: indeed, most applauded the conductor's efforts to recoup the lost time. How can we reconcile these two stories?
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