No. 4.] fflGHWAYS. 229 



or for depositing building material under proper municipal 

 regulations ; but if such use is prolonged for an unreason- 

 able time, or if it is of such a nature as to unnecessarily or 

 unduly interfere with the right of the public to pass and 

 repass, it will constitute a nuisance, and may be abated. 



The most common forms of encroachment in the country 

 are the gradual pushing out of fences be3^ond the line of 

 the highway into the highway itself; making the street a 

 dmnping place for refuse of all kinds ; filling up the sides 

 of it with stone ; piling it with lumber ; using it for the 

 storage of wagons, carts, etc., — thus rendering it unsightly, 

 and in some cases unsafe for travel. We find references in 

 the town histories to the practice of throwing manure from 

 stables into the streets, — a nuisance not to be tolerated, 

 of course. Judd's " History of Hadley " mentions the fact 

 that Oliver Smith used to throw his manure out into the 

 broad street opposite the meeting house, much to the dis- 

 comfort and distm'bance of all who worshipped there on 

 Sunday . 



Any unauthorized obstruction of a highway is a public 

 nuisance, and creating or maintaining a public nuisance is 

 a criminal misdemeanor. The normal remedy for such a 

 nuisance is a criminal prosecution. Sometimes an additional 

 remedy is allowed by an injunction granted at the suit of the 

 Attorney-General. 



A private citizen who is especially injured by an obstruc- 

 tion in the street may also apply for an injunction. This 

 is one of the rare cases in the law where an injm'ed person 

 may take the remedy into his own hands, and have the 

 nuisance abated. It was said by the former Chief Justice 

 Shaw of Massachusetts, in an important case. Brown v. Per- 

 kins, reported in 12 Gray, that the true theor}^ of abatement 

 of nuisance is that an individual citizen may abate a private 

 nuisance injurious to him when he could also bring an action ; 

 and also when a common nuisance obstructs his individual 

 right he may remove it, to enable him to enjoy that right, 

 and he cannot be called in question for so doing ; as in the 

 case of an obstruction across a highway, and an unauthorized 

 bridtre over a navigable water course, which water course 



