Southern Railroads and Fences. 15 



railroad in operation in the United States at the close of the year 1880 ; of 

 this number 24,120 miles are divided among the Southern States as follows : 



Miles of Railroad in Southern States in 1880. 



STATES. MILES. 



Maryland 1012 



Virginia 1826 



North Carolina 1499 



South Carolina 1429 



Georgia 2535 



Florida 530 



Alabama 1851 



Mississippi -.... 1183 



Louisiana 633 



Texas 3293 



Arkansas 896 



Missouri 4011 



Tennessee 1824 



Kentucky 1598 



Total 24,120 



In every Northern and Western state railroad companies are required either 

 by the express terms of their charters, or by general statutes to maintain 

 " good and sufficient fences" along their tracks, and the later tendency has 

 been to make these laws more explicit and imperative. 



SOUTHERN RAILROADS AND FENCING. 



But in the Southern states the specific rules and customs of railroad fencing 

 have always been far from strict, and only by indirection, compulsory. 



Missouri indeed is to be excepted, her statutes requiring all railroad com- 

 panies to fence all portions of their lines that run through cultivated land, or 

 be liable for double the amount of damages done to live stock by the passing 

 of their trains. In no other Southern state does such a law exist, though 

 there have been attempts to accomplish the same end ; either as in Kentucky 

 and Texas by special exemptions from the acts providing damages for injuries 

 to persons and property, in the cases of railroad companies " whose entire 

 lines are enclosed with good and lawful fences, and good and sufficient cattle 

 gaps, kept in good repair, or by statutes intended to be penal in their 

 character, as in Tennessee, Noith Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Florida 

 and Arkansas, whereby railroad companies are held liable in damages, or 

 double damages for all injuries done to live stock b} T their trains. 



It will be noticed that these constructions and prescriptions of the laws of 

 the Southern states, applicable to railway fencing, refer chiefly to compensa- 

 tions for damages to live stock, leaving the security of passengers without 

 expressed recognition. A marked change has, however, taken place within 

 the past few years in the Southern railway system, by the absorption and 

 development of many former small and merely local lines into the great routes 

 of trans-Continental transit and traffic, and this must bring a better law and 

 custom in railway fencing making the prime consideration, THE SAFETY OF THE 



TRAVELLING PUBLIC. 



No better statement has ever been made of the principle of railway fencing 

 than was given forty-two years ago, at the very commencement of the railroad 

 era, in an English Parliamentary report, as follows. It is worthy the atten- 

 tion of all Southern legislators. 



The good fencing of railroads is essential to the safety of passengers ; and it must 

 be observed that the bank on which a railway is formed, especially attracts the cattle 

 by reason of its dryriess compared with the adjoining fields, while one small defect in 

 the fence may endanger the lives of the whole train of passengers. * * * 

 The power of obliging a railway to make good fences should not be left to the proprie- 

 tors or occupiers of the adjoining lands who may not be constantly vigilant, or who 

 may not choose to interfere. (English Parliamentary Report, 1839.) 



From this brief review it will be seen that, after generations of test and 

 experience, there has been nothing in the open field husbandry of other nations 



