FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. lOI 



that those trees had helped form a beautiftil picture in front 

 of liis house. Well, the lower court awarded him damages, 

 and the gas company didn't think that was right, and appealed 

 the case to the higher court, and straightway the higher court 

 sustained the decision of the lower court. Well, they went 

 ahead and ai)pealcd to the Supreme Court of the state of New 

 York, and the judges took the matter into consideration, after 

 the manner of our Supreme Court of Errors, and finally they 

 made up their mind that that man had a just cause and they 

 awarded damages upon the ground that that man had acquired 

 an easement in those trees, and they gave him $150.00 for those 

 trees. Now the question is, have we acquired an easement in 

 the beauty of our landscape, and if we have 1 think we can 

 catch those fellows, and I firmly believe that we will wipe this 

 ^'Wilsons" and "Gortons" and all the rest of that sordid stufif 

 right off the face of the map. 



Mr. Hale: Our next tree warden, Mr. C. I. Allen of 

 Plymouth, will address vou on 



The Need of a Better Understanding of Our Rights. 



By C. T. Allen, Tree Warden, Plymouth. 

 Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: I suppose every tree 

 warden in the state, when they accepted the office, took a 

 solemn oath that they would fulfil the duties of that office to 

 the best of their ability. It seemed to me, after taking this 

 oath, that the first thing for me to do was to find out what 

 the duties of that office were. The office was a new one to our 

 town and I was a new man in the office, and consequently I 

 didn't have any precedents to handicap me or guide me, and 

 the only authority I could find was the statutes, and I began 

 to look in them to see what my duties were, and I very soon 

 found I was up against a mixture of laws that I wasn't able 

 to interpret to my own satisfaction, and, after hearing my 

 friend Judge Root here to-night, I find they are mixed a little 

 worse than I thought they were. I didn't, however, feel like 

 sitting down and saying we are powerless, and wait for another 

 legislature to help us out and n^ake some new laws that prob- 

 ably vyon't be an\ better than wc have already. Someone 



