Book contents
1 - Geographies of Fear in the Age of Sensation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2016
Summary
Ephemeral Chills and Thrills
I am the wife of Henry Deakerton Martin, of Cheltenham, and was travelling from [Gloucester] to Bristol, yesterday, by the express train. Defendant entered the compartment of the carriage in which I was seated alone at Gloucester. During the journey we talked, as people generally do in the train. He had the impertinence to kiss me. He put his arm around my neck and kissed me twice, and on my arrival at Bristol, I gave him in charge.
Anon., ‘A Gentleman Fined for Kissing a Lady in a Railway Carriage’
Reynold's Newspaper (1861)He then proceeded to push his knee against her, and she withdrew her leg; and in a short time he put his arm round her waist and kissed her. She was in the compartment alone with this man, a strong, powerful man, and unprotected […] The defendant became more daring and kissed her lips, and placed himself in front of her and endeavoured to raise her dress, and undoubtedly committed an indecent assault. The lady screamed, but the train was going at the rate of thirty or forty miles an hour, and her screams were not heard […] She endeavoured to break the window with her elbow, but did not succeed, and she then got the door open and got out. The defendant then put his arm round her and endeavoured to pull her back into the carriage, but she got herself in a place of safety so far as he was concerned, but in a place of great danger so far as her life was concerned, but she determined to keep in that position even if death overtook her rather than be further molested by this man.
Anon., ‘The Charge of Assaulting a Lady in a Railway Carriage’
Daily News (1875)He pulled her from her seat and threw her upon the floor. The lady struggled and resisted to the utmost of her power. Prisoner threatened to shoot her, to administer chloroform, or to cut her throat if she resisted […]
Anon., ‘Dastardly Assault on a Lady in a Railway Carriage’
Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper (1893)A cultural account of women and the railway in the Victorian times cannot but start with a review of the most popular narrative of the period, that of women's vulnerability within the train carriage.
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- Women and the Railway, 1850-1915 , pp. 22 - 58Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2015