308 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



remarked to the driver that it was a dangerous place. He replied that it was, 

 but looked at his watch, and said there was no danger, as it was an hour past 

 train time, and drove on. They did not stop to listen for the cars, nor did it 

 appear that they looked one way or the other, either up or down the track, 

 until an instant before they were struck. The driver was killed, the woman 

 thrown some distance against the fence and badly injured, and the wagon 

 torn to fragments. The court held that the negligence of the driver of the 

 team was such that no recovery could be had ; that the negligence on the part 

 of the person owning and driving the team affected the right of the woman 

 riding equally as though it were her own negligence. Therefore it would seem, 

 if you should happen to be riding with a careless, negligent driver, you had 

 better get out just before you come upon a railroad track and walk, unless you 

 are sure that no train or engine is approaching, as you will be held in such a 

 case responsible for the carelessness of the driver, even though you have a 

 free ride. 



LECTURE NUMBER ELEVEN. 



LAW OF THE EOAD. 



We have two kinds of public roads : First, such as are laid out and estab- 

 lished by the government. State, county, or district, and are kept in repair by 

 the same authority ; and, secondly, those which are made and laid out by 

 authority of law by a corporation or company of individuals, and which are 

 kept in repair by them. 



The public have the use of a road of the first class, but the owners of laud 

 over which it passes have a fee in such road, subject to the easement of the 

 public ; and the owners of the sides have, ijrima facie, a fee in it to the center 

 of the road, subject to the public right, except where the boundary excludes 

 the highway. The proprietor of the soil of such a road is therefore entitled 

 to all the fruits which grow by its side, and to all the mineral wealth it con- 

 tains; and whenever such road is vacated, that is, abandoned by public 

 authority, the easement of the public is gone, and the land discharged from 

 it reverts to its former owner. 



Railroads, turnpikes, plank roads, gravel roads, and other ways, authorized 

 by the government to be made by corporations or public companies, are the 

 second class of public roads. These are made and kept in order by the com- 

 panies to which they respectively belong, but the public have a right to travel 

 over them, and no citizen can be prevented from going on them in such a way 

 as is regulated by law. If one complies with the law and the rules of the road, 

 as legally established and prescribed, he has a right to travel over this class of 

 roads. 



Respecting such public roads as are laid out and established by the govern- 

 ment, State, county, or district, I will say that any act or obstruction which 

 unnecessarily incommodes or impedes the lawful use of such highway by the 

 public is a common law nuisance, and may be abated by any one whose passage 

 is thereby obstructed, or the person causing or maintaining such obstruction 

 may be prosecuted or may be sued for damages by any one injured thereby.. 

 Every one, however, who assumes to judge of and remove an obstruction to a. 



