Mount Auburn Cemetery

[Subject: Dangerous Rail] [letterhead RAILWAY AND MANUFACTURERS' SUPPLIES. S. C. NIGHTINGALE & CHILDS, NO. 128 OLIVER STREET, MACHINERY WASTE. TOOLS & MACHINERY.]

Boston, Oct 19 1881

Dear Mr Lovering, Some time in the spring of 1879, if I rightly recollect, an old lady got off a horse car, opposite the entrance to your office and started to reach the sidewalk beside the fence. There is an iron rail, square edge, between the road & the sidewalk and being painted dark the same color, as the fence, is difficult to see unless ones eyes are young & bright. the old lady referred to did not see this rail and struck it so hard that she was considerably damaged, being cut on the forehead, I remember dressing the wound, as best I could & after plastering it up put her onto a car for home. Last week my mother and another old lady met with a precisely similar accident at the same place and only by good fortune escaped serious harm. Before somebody else is unfortunate in the same way, wouldn't it be advisable that some step be taken to prevent another accident of same kind. Of course it isn't likely that either of these ladies will forget it, so my suggestion is for the benefit of those who

[letterhead RAILWAY AND MANUFACTURERS' SUPPLIES. S. C. NIGHTINGALE & CHILDS, NO. 128 OLIVER STREET, MACHINERY WASTE. TOOLS & MACHINERY. Boston, 188]

have not had this experience. It is really dangerous, and it would seem against good policy to allow its continuance just as it is -- I hope you understand just my meaning, that I do not wish to meddle with what does not concern me and that my interest in Mt. Auburn is [lively?]. But for some hours I was very anxious about my mother as it is a very serious matter for one so old to receive so serious a blow, and this is not the first case.

I hope some simple & inexpensive expedient can be arrived at to do away with this danger.

Yrs very truly

Frank C. Childs