"The laws regarding common carriers apply to steamships and steamboats the same as to railways, and the decisions in cases arising from loss of the property of passengers are of the general character already described.
"Many suits have arisen consequent upon the failure of railway companies to run their trains at the advertised time, missing connections, or otherwise causing loss to the passenger. The courts have generally held that the advertised time-table of a company has the validity of a contract with the public, and unless it can show that the failure to keep the agreement was quite beyond its control, the passenger must be paid for any immediate loss resulting therefrom. But the allowances are confined to 'direct' rather than to 'indirect' damages, and include extra expense for hotel bills or for special conveyances, and sometimes compensation for injury to health by exposure. A merchant may be able to show that by missing a connection he lost the opportunity to make a valuable contract; a lawyer may prove that a case went against him because the delay on the railway prevented his reaching court till after the judge had rendered his decision; or an actor may show that he disappointed an audience and lost the profits of a performance for the same reason. In all these instances the courts will not hold the companies responsible, as the loss is constructive and not actual. On the other hand the passenger is held guiltless for a free ventilation of his opinions to the conductor or other representative of the company, and he may even indulge in profane expressions, if he is unrestrained by moral training.
"There is a case on record in which a railway train that was running behind time was struck by a tornado, whereby a passenger was injured. A suit was brought for damages on the ground that if the train had been on time it would not have encountered the storm, but the court held that the delay was not in any way the cause of the tornado, and therefore the company had no responsibility in the matter. Accidents from floods, snow-storms, and similar causes are regarded by the courts as 'the act of God,' and if a company can show that it used all diligence to avert disaster, and made every reasonable effort to get the train through on time, it is exonerated.