The Road and the Roadside Part 6

[105] 4 Gray, 478; 117 Ma.s.s. 204.

In riding or driving keep hold of the reins, and don't let your horses get beyond your control; for if you do your chances of victory in a lawsuit will be pretty slim. If you tie up your reins for the purpose of walking in order to get warm or to lighten the load, and let your horses go uncontrolled, and they run over a child in the road and kill it or seriously injure it, you will probably have to pay more than the value of the horses, unless they are very good ones. Or if, going thus uncontrolled, they fail to use due care and good judgment in meeting other teams, and in consequence thereof damages occur, you would be expected to make everything satisfactory, because your team is required to observe "the law of the road" whether you are with it or not, especially if you turn it loose in the highway. Even if you have hold of the reins, and your horses get beyond your control by reason of fright or other cause, and afterwards you meet with an accident by reason of a defect in the highway, you cannot recover anything.[106]

[106] 101 Ma.s.s. 93; 106 Ma.s.s. 278; 40 Barb. 193.

Don't encroach upon or abuse the highway, either by crowding fences or buildings upon its limits or by using it as a storage yard. If you set a building on the line of the road, and then put the doorsteps, the eaves, and the bow-windows of the building over the line, you are liable to an indictment for maintaining a public nuisance; and possibly you may be ordered by the court to remove them forthwith at your own expense.[107] If you build an expensive bank-wall for a road fence, and place any part of it over the line, you must remove it upon the request of the public authorities, or else take your chances on an indictment for maintaining an illegal obstruction in the highway. If you deposit on the roadside logs, lumber, shingles, stones, or anything else which const.i.tutes an obstruction to travel or a defect in the way, or which is calculated to frighten horses of ordinary gentleness, and allow the same to remain for an unreasonable length of time, you are liable to respond in damages for all injuries resulting therefrom. Even if the town should have to settle for the damages in the first instance, you might still be called upon to reimburse the town.[108]

[107] 107 Ma.s.s. 234.

[108] Wood on Nuisances, ---- 326, 327; 102 Ma.s.s. 341; 18 Me.

286; 41 Vt. 435.

Don't ride on the outside platform of a pa.s.senger coach; for if you cling upon a crowded stage-coach or street car, and voluntarily take a position in which your hold is necessarily precarious and uncertain, you have no right to complain of any accident that is the direct result of the danger to which you have seen fit to expose yourself. However, if the coach is stopped for you to get on and fare is taken for your ride, the fact that you are on the platform is not conclusive evidence against you; but the court will allow the jury to determine, upon all the evidence and under all the circ.u.mstances, whether you were in the exercise of due care, instructing them that the burden of proof is upon you to show that the injury resulted solely by the negligence of the proprietors of the coach.[109]

[109] 103 Ma.s.s. 391; 8 Allen, 234; 115 Ma.s.s. 239.

Don't jump off a pa.s.senger coach when it is in motion; for if you get off without doing or saying anything, or if you ring the bell and then get off before the coach is stopped, without any notice to those in charge of it, and without their knowing, or being negligent in not knowing, what you are doing, the coach proprietors are not liable for any injury you may receive through a fall occasioned by the sudden starting of the coach during your attempt to get off.[110]

[110] 106 Ma.s.s. 463.

Don't wilfully break down, injure, remove, or destroy a milestone, mile-board, or guide-post erected upon a public way, or wilfully deface or alter the inscription on any such stone or board, or extinguish a lamp, or break, destroy, or remove a lamp, lamp-post, railing, or posts erected on a street or other public place; for if you do you are liable to six months' imprisonment or a fine of fifty dollars.[111]

[111] Pub. St. c. 203, -- 76.

If in travelling you find the road impa.s.sable, or closed for repairs, and you find it convenient to turn aside and enter upon adjoining land in order to go on your way, don't be careless or imprudent; for if you take down more fences and do more damage than necessary, you may have to answer in damages to the owner of the land; and if you meet with an accident while thus out of the road, you cannot look to the town for any remuneration therefor, because when you go out of the limits of the way voluntarily, you go at your peril and on your own responsibility.[112]

[112] 8 Met. 391; 7 Cush. 408; 7 Barb. 309.

Don't make the mistake of supposing that everything that frightens your horse or causes an accident in the highway is a defect for which the town is liable. If a town negligently suffers snowdrifts to remain in the road for a long time, and thereby you are prevented from pa.s.sing over the road to attend to your business, or, in making an attempt to pa.s.s, your horses get into the snow and you are put to great trouble, expense, and loss of time in extricating them, you are remediless unless you receive some physical injury in your person or property; as the remedy provided by the statutes, in case of defects in the highway, does not extend to expenses or loss of time unless they are incident to such physical injury. In other words, the statute gives no one a claim for damages sustained in consequence of inability to use a road.[113] And so a town or city is not obliged to light the highways, and an omission to do so is not a defect in the way for which it is liable.[114]

[113] 13 Met. 297; 6 Cush. 141.

[114] 136 Ma.s.s. 419.

Nor is the mere narrowness and crookedness of a road a defect within the meaning of the statutes. Towns and cities are only required to keep highways in suitable repair as they are located by the public authorities, and they have no right to go outside the limits defined by the location in order to make the road more safe and convenient for travel. If a highway is so narrow or crooked as to be unsafe, the proper remedy is by an application to the county commissioners to widen or straighten it.[115] Nor is smooth and slippery ice, in country road or city street, a defect for which a town or city is liable, if the road whereon the ice acc.u.mulates is reasonably level and well constructed. In our climate the formation of thin but slippery ice over the whole surface of the ground is frequently only the work of a few hours; and to require towns and cities to remove this immediately or at all is supposing that the legislature intended to cast upon them a duty impossible to perform, and a burden beyond their ability to carry.[116]

[115] 105 Ma.s.s. 473.

[116] 12 Allen, 566; 102 Ma.s.s. 329; 104 Ma.s.s. 78.

If you meet with an accident on the highway by reason of a defect therein, don't fail to give notice in writing within thirty days, to the county, town, place, or persons by law obliged to keep said highway in repair, stating the time, place, and cause of the injury or damage.[117] This notice is a condition precedent to the right to maintain an action for such injury or damage, and cannot be waived by the city or town.[118] Nothing will excuse such notice except the physical or mental incapacity of the person injured, in which case he may give the notice within ten days after such incapacity is removed, and in case of his death it may be given by his executors or administrators.[119] Formerly it was essential that the time, place, and cause of the injury should be set forth in the notice with considerable particularity, but now the notice is not invalid by reason of any inaccuracy in stating the time, place, and cause, if the error is not intentional and the party ent.i.tled to notice is not misled.[120]

[117] Pub. St. c. 52, ---- 19-21.

[118] 128 Ma.s.s. 387.

[119] Pub. St. c. 52, -- 21.

[120] St. 1882, c. 36.

Don't convey by warranty deed a piece of land over which there is a public or a private way, without conveying subject to such way; for if you do you may be called upon to make up the difference in value in the land with the inc.u.mbrance upon it and with it off, which is regarded as a just compensation for the injury resulting from such an inc.u.mbrance.[121]

[121] 2 Ma.s.s. 97; 15 Pick. 66; 2 Allen, 428.

Finally, don't keep a dog that is in the habit of running into the road and barking at pa.s.sing teams. You had better get rid of him or break him of the habit. Under our statutes the owner or keeper of a dog is responsible to any person injured by him, either in person or property, double the amount of damage sustained; and after he has received notice of the bad disposition of his dog, he is liable to have the damage increased threefold.

Every dog that has the habit of barking at people on the highway is liable any day to subject his owner or keeper to large liabilities; for if he frightens a horse by leaping or barking at him in mere play, and the horse runs away, or tips over the vehicle to which he is. .h.i.tched, his owner or keeper is responsible for double the damages thus caused by his dog. Hence I repeat the injunction, Get rid of such a dog or break him of the habit; and if this cannot be done, then break his neck.

Perhaps it might be well to say, in this connection, that any traveller on the road, either riding or walking peaceably, who is suddenly a.s.saulted by a dog, whether licensed or not, may legally kill him, and thus relieve his owner or keeper of a disagreeable duty.[122]

[122] 11 Gray, 29; 1 Allen, 191; 3 Allen, 191.

CHAPTER XVII.

FOOT-PATHS.

Air, sunlight, and exercise are absolutely essential for the proper physical and intellectual development of human beings. Th.o.r.eau thought it necessary for people who wished to preserve their health and spirits to spend four hours a day in the open air, sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields, free from all worldly engagements. No doubt he spoke from his own personal standpoint, and many persons do not require so much exercise in the open air as he did in order to preserve their health and spirits; but the proper observance of the laws of health certainly requires every one to spend a portion of every pleasant day in the open air, and on foot if possible. Since the morning stars first sang together, the whole creation has been groaning and travailing in preparing the earth for the habitation of man; and the influence and teachings of Nature have ever aided powerfully in perfecting man and upbuilding the ruling nations of the world.

The progenitors of every vigorous race have always found in forest and wilderness the tonics and sources of their strength. It took forty years of wandering in the wilderness to prepare the Israelites for the occupation of the promised land. In the open and out-door life of the Athenians was developed a civilization n.o.ble in high aspirations for the ideal in beauty and life, rich in literary and oratorical achievements, and glorious in the great and profound thoughts of immortal teachers and philosophers. The august and all-conquering civilization of the Romans had its origin on Palatine Hill when herdsmen and wolves roamed over it. In Holland, where the people are ever in conflict with the elements of Nature, the land has been reclaimed by human effort from "the mult.i.tudinous waves of the sea." The streams that once spread over the land or hid themselves in quicksands and thickets are made to flow in channels and form a network of watery highways for commerce and the fertilization of the soil; and where formerly lagoons and mora.s.ses found a home, there are now pleasant homesteads, great cities, and beautiful villages. The Anglo-Saxon race, which is now and has been for centuries the most vigorous and progressive in the world, has always had an insatiable hunger for the earth, and a love for a life in the fields by stream or by roadside. Everywhere we find the highest type of civilization where man has gained the mastery of Nature by the work of his hands. The home of such a civilization is usually found where forests have been removed, and the wild vegetation of primitive times has been expelled to make room for the thousand and one productions of modern cultivation; where hillsides and mountain-cliffs have been festooned with vines and made to blossom like the rose; where watercourses have been made highways for trade and utilized for purposes of manufacture; and where gloomy mora.s.ses and damp lowlands have been dried up and made fertile and habitable by drainage and cultivation.

As close contact with Nature is necessary for the making of nations, so her teachings are essential for the largest expansion of the human mind. All the great teachers of the race have found in Nature the germs of the thoughts which have widened the bounds of human knowledge "with the process of the suns." "Speak to the earth, and it will teach thee," was the basis of Job's philosophy. When David wanted light and a.s.sistance, he lifted up his eyes unto the hills, from whence came his help. Plato taught in the consecrated groves of the Academy, and Aristotle in the pleasant fields of Nymphaeum or in the shady walks of the Lyceum. Christ taught his disciples to heed the teachings of Nature, and he sought strength and inspiration in the wilderness and the mountains. Wordsworth's library was in his house, but his study was out of doors. But why enumerate, when the entire intellectual history of our race demonstrates that every invention or thought which has extended man's mental vision and knowledge has been evolved from the discovery of some hitherto hidden law of the material world, or from the teachings of Nature, which always foreshadow the fundamental principles regnant in the seen and the unseen world? Hence anything which tends to bring people into the open air and into a closer communion with Nature is worthy of encouragement.

Good foot-paths would furnish an easy and convenient way of getting at Nature; and being free from the dust and heat of the highway, and somewhat retired and secluded, they would be, during a considerable portion of the year, musical with the song of birds and beautiful with green foliage and lovely flowers. These paths would invite and encourage people to take long walks, and this habit would undoubtedly conduce to their longevity and robust health. And the promotion of health is now regarded, in every enlightened community, as one of the objects of government. The enjoyment of life depends in great measure upon the state of our health. When the air feels bracing, and food and drink taste sweet to us, much else in life tastes sweet which would otherwise taste sour and disagreeable. Good drainage and vaccination are not the only means available for the promotion of the public health. People should be encouraged and educated into the habit of taking plenty of exercise in the open air, as in this way the public health will be improved.

One of the charms of old England is to be found in her numerous foot-paths and green lanes, which are recognized by law, for many of them are older than the highways. When a walker tires of the public road or is in a hurry, if he knows the country, he can turn into some foot-path and reach the place of his destination by short cuts through green lanes, across pleasant meadows, and along shady hedgerows. As one pa.s.ses along these cosey byways, he sees, from every eminence or turn, a new prospect over the landscape interspersed with trees, now and then the bright gleam of water through the foliage, and occasionally some beautiful vista view across parks and homesteads. In this way one can go from town to town, and get about the country quite independently of the highways.

Most of the country churches are approachable by lanes and foot-paths which seem to run by all the houses in the vicinage, and by their sweet attractiveness to invite all the people to go to church, at least in pleasant summer weather.

In Ma.s.sachusetts and some of the other States, towns and cities have authority to lay out foot-paths in the same manner as public ways.

It is to be hoped ere-long that the intelligent and public-spirited citizens of our towns and cities will cause now and then a good foot-walk to be constructed, where it would shorten the distance from one place to another, and possibly pa.s.s through pleasant fields and woods, and over hills commanding beautiful and extensive views.

It is not pleasant to walk in the dust and publicity of highways, nor on gravel walks in artificial parks, where sign-boards and policemen warn you frequently to "keep off the gra.s.s."

Before our towns and cities spend any more money building boulevards and opening new parks, would it not be well for them to consider the advisability of laying out some foot-paths for the comfort and convenience of pedestrians? At any rate, foot-paths could be made alongside of the road-bed of some of the public ways, so that every pedestrian would not of necessity have to trudge along in the dust or mud incident to the middle of the road.

CHAPTER XVIII.

WITHIN AND WITHOUT THE ROADSIDE.

Besides the legal duty every dweller by a highway is under, to use it with due regard to the rights of the public, he is under a moral and Christian obligation to maintain order and neatness within and without his roadside. The occupations and amenities of life are so interwoven and intermixed that no one can live for himself alone with justice to himself or to society. There is something in the very nature of things which makes for the reward of unselfish exertion and for the condemnation of selfish acts. "Whosoever shall seek to save his life, shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life, shall preserve it." Public spirit, like virtue, is its own exceeding great reward. When one benefits the community in which he lives, he thereby also benefits himself; and when he is possessed of the right kind of a public spirit, he will beautify and improve his homestead and his roadside, and will even throw the cobble-stones out of the roadway in front of his house without compensation or even hope of financial reward.

When he plants a tree for the sole purpose of doing something for posterity, and then watches its growth and expansion from day to day until he becomes familiar with its varied aspects in sunny and in stormy weather, and finally, walking beneath its cooling shade and seeing its limbs swaying gracefully over surrounding objects, his heart goes out towards it with a feeling of tenderness and love, and he feels that he has been paid a thousand times for setting it out.