4887 
THZ RURAL flEW'VORKfll. 
Caw. 
“ Ever)i Man is presumed to know the Law; 
Nine-tenths of all Litigation arises from Ig¬ 
norance of Law." 
OWNERSHIP OF FRUIT ALONG BOUNDARY 
LINES. 
M. y Fredonia, N. Y .—A row of fruit 
• trees stands near the line fence between 
the property of A and B. One or more of them 
stand on the line, but most of them stand a 
foot or two aside from the line. A crooked 
rail feuce marks the line, and is so built that 
the trees are all ou one side of it. A, on whose 
side of the fence the trees stand, claims all the 
fruit. B, ou whose side of the line most of the 
trees stand, claims the apples on the trees 
standing on his side of the line, and half of 
those on the trees standing in the line; who is 
right? 
Ans.—B is right.. He has a valid claim to 
all the fruit growing on the trees on his side 
of the boundary line. His right extends even 
to the fruit on the branches projecting over 
A's land. If the fruit from the projecting 
branches falls into his neighbor’s land, how¬ 
ever, a question may arise as to his right to 
go upou it to recover the fruit, B also owus 
one-half the fruit growing on the trees which 
stand on the boundary line, as such trees are 
common property. A zigzag rail fence does 
not determine the boundary line, and the trees 
belong to the man on whose land they stand, 
no matter ou which side of such a fence they 
may stand, 
RIGHT TO CUT OVERHANGING BRANCHES. 
H. L. S,, Rochester, X. Y .—In the yard ad¬ 
joining mine, and so close to the boundary 
that the fence is displaced, is a maple tree 
whose branches project over ray entire yard, 
so that, during the past summer the sunlight 
was kept, out, and neither gr ss nor flowers 
could thrive. After giving notice to the ad¬ 
joining owner, have I a right to remove the 
branches projecting over ray laud? 
Ans.— The owner of real estate may cut off 
the branches or roots of trees up to the line of 
his land, eveu without any notice to the ad¬ 
joining owner; but if he uses them he will be 
liable to pay the owner of the tree what they 
were worth. AVbere the tree stands on the 
boundary line between the adjoining owners, 
so that its truuk extends into the land of each, 
they own the tree and fruit iu common, and 
neither can cut the tree without the consent 
of the other, nor can either cut away the part 
that extends iuto his land, if thereby the com¬ 
mon property is injured. 
DUTY OF CUTTING WEEDS, ETC., ON HIGH¬ 
WAYS. 
TV. L. M., Pugh, Ohio .—A lot of weeds 
grew along the highway near my farm, and 
matured seed, some of which were carried by' 
the wind ou to my land; wasn’t it the duty' of 
the road supervisors to cut them before they 
ripened seed? 
Ans. —Yes. The law, in Ohio, provides 
that supervisors shall cut down and destroy 
all weeds, burrs, bushes aud briars growing 
within any county or township highway in 
June and August each year. They may al¬ 
low a land owner a reasonable compensation 
for destroying the i*ests on roads on which 
his laud abuts, and credit the amount on bis 
road tax for the year. The compensation 
must be fixed by the supervisor before the 
work is done; but if anyone does the work 
without first contracting with the supervisor 
for it, ho cannot compel the supervisor to 
grant him any credit for it. The superin¬ 
tendent of any turnpike road, on which toll 
is charged,must cut down all such pests grow¬ 
ing within the turnpike, and if he neglects to 
do so before September 1, the trustees shall 
cause the work to be done, and they have a 
right of action against the turnpike company 
for the amount paid for the labor, together 
with a peualty' of UK) per cent.,to be recovered 
before any justice of the township. 
A TENANT’S RIGHT TO CUT WOOD. 
U. .4. T., Claysville, 1’a .—There is a lot of 
trees on a farm 1 have leased; am I entitled 
to cut them for my own use? 
Ans,—A tenant has a right to take wood 
from the land for fuel, fences, and agricul¬ 
tural erections and other necessary improve¬ 
ments on the farm; but ho has no right to cut 
trees which are growing as a weather pro¬ 
tection, or for ornamental purposes, or 
to injure fruit trees growing in au 
orchard or garden. Nor can ho cut tim¬ 
ber trees as firewood to sell, nor cau he 
cut fof any other purpose provided there 
is enough dead wood on the premises, lie 
may cut timber trees for the necessary repair 
of the houses or fences ou the farm, eveu 
though he may have agreed to repair at his 
own expense; but it must be for the repair of 
such buildings as were ou the laud before he 
occupied it, and not for those afterwards 
erected. _ 
R. If., New York City .—C bought some real 
estate in New Jersey in her daughter-in-law’s 
name, for protection, as B had a claim against 
her. C. has died intestate leaving two daugh¬ 
ters and one son; how should the property be 
divided. 
Ans.—T f this statement is uncontested, C’s 
estate can recover the property, which will 
then be subject to B’s claim ou C’s estate, ami 
anything that is left, if C left no husband to 
take a life Interest in it, will be divided 
equally between the three children. 
L. S. M , New Brunswick, N. J. —A, who is 
not a citizen of the United States, about 20 
years ago bought a house and 15 acres of land 
in this State. About one year later he sold 
the place to B. Since then B has been told 
that A could not give him a clear title ; to. 
whom does the property belong ? 
Ans. —The fact that A is an alien does not 
disqualify him from giving a clear title, for in 
New Jersey aliens may hold and transfer real 
estate the same as citizens. 
L. T. M , Hartford, Conn .—A cow of mine 
was killed ou the railroad, my hired man hav¬ 
ing left the gate open through carelessness or 
thoughtlessness. Can I recover the value of 
the cow from the railroad or hired man. 
Ans.—Y ou can recover the value of the 
cow from neither. 
I N the Rural of October 22, page 709. the 
Eye-Opener denounced the underhand 
means adopted by the manager of a Chicago 
monthly medical periodical to foist his paper 
on unwilling people. Three years ago he of- 
tered to send his journal as a premium to the 
subscribers of several hundred country papers 
on condition that they would insert bis adver¬ 
tisement. Most of them accepted the offer 
and furnished him with their Subscription 
lists. The Chicago sharper sent, his paper; 
but instead of stopping it at the end of the 
year he continued to send it for two years 
more. Nearly all those who took it supposed 
it was still seut gratis, so that very few or¬ 
dered it to be stopped or failed to take it from 
the post-office. When the time came for 
springing the trap he notified his “subscrib¬ 
ers,” through a Chicago collecting agency 
that they must pay from |2 to $15 each iu or¬ 
der to save the costs of a suit. The periodical 
guilty' of this shabby trick is “ Health and 
Home.” We have received a number of in¬ 
quiries about it. aud several specimens of t he 
collecting agency's uotiees. Our inquirers 
want to learn whether the claim can be legal¬ 
ly collected, TJie Auditor of the New York 
Post-Office, to whom the matter was referred 
with a full explanation, says that those who 
took the papers after the termination of the 
y r ear for which it was given as a premium 
“‘will doubtless have to pay.” The case is 
such a flagrant imposition, however, that it 
might be worth while to contest the claim in 
any place where a large number of people have 
beeu bamboozled, as a small contribution 
from each would defray the expenses. 
The Mozart Importing and Publishing 
Company, of New Haven, Conn., is exten¬ 
sively advertising music boxes, diamond rings 
and watches at prices marvelously low com¬ 
pared with those for American goods. The 
concern claims rhat the goods are sent over 
iu great quantities from Switzerland, France 
and Englaud, aud they “propose to give away 
some of these to advertise” their busiuess. 
Then they enumerate certain presents which 
they propose to give away to those who send 
them, before December 19, the shortest verse 
in the Bible. In every ease, however, patrons 
must inclose 32cents iu their first application 
“iu silver, stamps or postal note,” for which 
the concern will send a package of choice 
English illuminated Christmas and New 
Year’s cards and 499 beautiful new style Ger¬ 
man scrap pictures with shoots of sentimental 
verses for autograph albums aud whichever 
of the above-named articles the patron may¬ 
be eutitled to. In every ease double the 
mouey’s worth is promised. The American 
Mercantile and Collecting Agency of this 
city has been investigating this concern. It 
finds that the “Company” is not known in 
New Haven; that, it has no recognized place 
of business there beyond a drawer iu the post 
office. The “choice cards” consist of eight 
cheap,coarse cards costing not over five cents; 
the’‘499 beautiful scrap pictures” consist of 
five sheeis containing 60 heads of animals, 
172 heads supposed to be of human beings, 
aud 42 figures of birds, the whole aggregating 
SIS instead of 499,juid dear at. 10 cents. ^In¬ 
deed, for any purpose except to amuse the 
baby for a few minutes the things are quite 
worthless. Thus for things that cannot eost 
the concern at the outside over 10 cents,it asks 
32 cents; and after paving two cents for post¬ 
age it makes a clear profit of 20 cents at the 
verv outset, Of course, it never expects that 
its disgusted patrons will have any more deal¬ 
ings with it. 
The Tortilita Mine humbug is still being 
industriously worked by that “truly good” 
man. Mr. Joseph H. Reall. Just now, how¬ 
ever, there must, be a very serious falling off 
in the amount of subscriptions sent to him by 
his dupes; for the exposure of the fraud has 
been spread widely abroad by a mnbitude of 
papers through the country. Joseph refused 
to appear before the Consolidated Stock Ex¬ 
change in this city, which wished him to ex¬ 
plain the condition of bis mines, and the stock 
will certainly be struck off the list for sale bv 
the Roard. Very uaturallv. Joseph didn’t 
want to explain, for an explanation would be 
tantamount to a confession of rascalitv, for 
t.he mendacious boasts of Ins circulars and ad¬ 
vertisements could not bamboozle the keen 
busiuess men of the Exchange. Indeed. 
Joseph mys be is ever «o sorrv that he “listed” 
the stock at all, for that has caused a peck of 
trouble, as the authorities of the Board have 
been constantly poking questions at him—and 
questions are very often very disagreeable 
things. The stock which cost $2 per share is 
now freelv offered here for 75 cents with no 
takers. Thera is a good deal of talk of prose¬ 
cuting Joseph and the other officers of the 
bubble, for obtaining money under false pre¬ 
tenses. Joseph has left New York for Boston, 
from which place he will opera e in future. He 
says the exposure will soon be forgotten, and 
hopes gudgeons will greedily jump at his bait 
again before loDg. What have Joseph’s news¬ 
paper accomplices to sav for themselves? He 
found no difficulty ingesting conductors of 
papers to contract for the insertion of from 
100 to 500 lines of reading matter furnished 
by him to appear among original aud selected 
matter aud not to bear any marks of its being 
an advertisement. Inserting fraudulent ad¬ 
vertisements in the advertising columns of a 
paper is surely bad enough; but if for pav a 
journal priuts as reading matter advertise¬ 
ments of swindling concerns, it becomes a 
partner in the swindle. Isn’t that so, gentle- 
mau editors? 
The Ontario Grain and Laud Company was 
the name of a Canadian branch of 
the Bohemian Oats. Red Line Wheat and 
similar swindles in the States. Like the 
other swindles it induced farmers to 
take a certain quantity of a much puffed- 
up variety of wheat at 815 a bushel— 
for which they were to pay bv notes, the com¬ 
pany agreeing to take back douhle the amount 
of the produce of the wheat at 815 a bushel, 
less commission. After the officers had secur¬ 
ed a laige number of notes from farmers in 
various parts of Ontario, they sold off all the 
remaining grain, bags, office furniture, etc. 
and also the farmers’ notes, of course to “in¬ 
nocent parties.” and left for parts unknown, 
probably this side of the line. The bamboo¬ 
zled farmers have he°u lately advertising and 
cautioning the public not to purchase the 
notes ; but i n spite of this, they are sure to 
turn up in the hands of “innocent holders.” 
To Several Inquirers.— Dean, Bruce & 
Co., who advertise from Detroit. Michigan, 
are not quoted by any mercantile agency, so 
that they have no busiuess standing, nor does 
their name appear in the directory of the 
citv of Detroit ... ... Investigation shows 
that Griswold Co., and the Domestic M’f’g 
Co , both of Wallingford, Conn., are trust¬ 
worthy to a limited extent...... We have 
had numerous complaints of Russell <Sr Co , 
of this city, publishers of the Household 
Journul. We can never recommend any con¬ 
cern that carries on business in the style this 
firm has adopted.. Humphrey's Ho¬ 
meopathic Medical Co., of this city, is quite 
trustworthy, and its “specifics” are the best 
of their kiud.Edward Manning <fc 
Co., of this city, is all right . ... The 
“Agents’ Herald” has been forced to discon¬ 
tinue “exposing frauds” as it claimed; or 
“blackmail tug” as others asserted. It was 
outspoken and fearless at any rate.“The 
Brooklyn Building Association” has of late 
done n large amount, of advertisiug in coun¬ 
try pacers Its name does uot appear in the 
Brooklyn or New York city directories; and 
investigation shows that it is au alias of 
“George Gilman dt Co..” who have lately 
beeu closed out by the sheriff. Those who 
trusted the concern can recover nothing . 
... A. S. Sweet, of this city, who has been 
pretty extensively advertising in country 
papers as a fruit and produce merchant. doing 
business in Fulton St., bus in realitv had no 
business place here except a letter box at the 
address he gives. He was arrested the other 
dav for selling a lot of hay consigned to him 
and falling to make any returns: hut the com¬ 
plainant withdrew the charge on the payment 
byj$weet.of_$125—the.price of tho.hay. 
XXJaman’s TDodt. 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
CHAT BY THE WAY. 
O UEEN VICTORIA has conferred the de- 
coration of the Royal Red Cross upon 
three nurses for faithful work with the British 
army in South Africa and Egypt.. The re¬ 
cipients are Sisters Emma Durham, Edith 
King, and Loui c a Jane Maokay. Sister Dur¬ 
ham saw hard service during the Zulu and 
Egyptian wars, and also worked among re¬ 
leased slaves in Zanzibar. Sister King and 
Sister Mackav also served in Egypt and Africa, 
as well as in England. The order of the Royal 
Red Cross is a new decoration, intended as a 
recognition of such services as these faithful 
workers bestow. 
* * * 
Lady Brassev, well known as the author of 
“Around the World in the Yacht Sunbeam,” 
died recently from a fever contracted in Aus¬ 
tralia. and was buried at. sea. She lias prob¬ 
ably spent more time in yachting than any 
other woman in the world. She has visited 
every quarter of the globe, and has written 
much and entertainingly of her travels. 
* * * 
Christine Terhuue Herrick says in Harper’s 
Bazar that many mistresses need almost as 
much counsel to teach them how to make 
work light as do their employees. They waste 
time and strength in preparations and have 
little energy left to fulfil their designs Each 
woman should study the simplest and easiest 
ways of accomplishing her various duties, not 
to spare herself exertion through indolence, 
but to economize her powers for other efforts. 
* * * 
A new material is called Himalaya or An¬ 
gora cloth. It has a long s r ft fleece like that 
on the Himalaya shawls, and is u«e 1 either as 
a border on skirts, or to make the skirt itself 
under a cloth polona'se The flepce is so long 
and firm that the cloth is used with raw edges 
which the fleece covers, just like fur. A styl¬ 
ish costume is a poppy red Himalaya skirt 
under a black cashmere polonaise The trim¬ 
ming for such a polonaise is netted silk cord, 
set in as au insertion, so as to show the red 
skirt beneath. 
* * * 
Walter Besant, in his new novel, “Kather¬ 
ine Regina.” still writes of the hardships of 
women wage-earners. He savs; “Most of the 
girls who work get longer hours than the 
men and shorter pay. If two creatures do 
exactly the same amount of work, the r ought 
to have the same strength. But nature re¬ 
fuses to girls the strength which she has given 
to men: custom prevents them from making 
the most of their strength by the help 
of much beef and beer; it even insists 
that women should not endeavor to 
make themseLves strong by takiug beef 
and beer in reasonable quantities, and 
causes them to dress in irrational ways; does 
not suffer them to take exercise, confines 
them in hot rooms with bad air, and very 
often makes them stand all day long. There¬ 
fore they are much more fatigued in the even¬ 
ing than the young men, who will cheerfully 
go to music halls, theatres, billiard rooms, 
volunteer drills, evening classes, gymnasia, 
and all kinds of places, after a long day’s 
work.” 
CONCERNING WOMEN. 
MARY WAGER-FISHEB. 
I F everybody felt as I do about weddings, all 
invitations sent out would bear the legend 
in one corner; “Piea«e omit presents"—much 
after the style of funeral announcements. 
Not that weddings are. or should t<e funereal, 
but because of the extravagant extent to 
which wedding presents are carried is a reform 
iu the custom of gift making upon such occa¬ 
sions necessary. There can be no blessing in 
a gift that does uot come from the heart, aud 
it is safe to say that fully one-half, if not more, 
of the presents sent to brides are of a purely 
perfunctory character. Tudeed, things have 
come to such a pass that onlv people of ex¬ 
traordinary moral heroism dare accept an 
invitation to a wedding without sending a 
present. Of course a tax is not directly 
levied upon all invited guests, but the effect is 
much the same. An invitation—as modern 
society goes—is au invitation for a present as 
well as for your preseuee. The outcome of 
all this is, that some persous deprive them¬ 
selves of needed articles for the sake of send¬ 
ing wedding gifts, while others who cannot 
afford the outlay, send their “regrets.” More¬ 
over, the newly married recipients of gifts 
often find themselves embarrassed and humili¬ 
ated in the succeeding years, at their inability 
to send fitting presents in return to their 
young friends upon the occasion of their 
marriage. Another pernicious result of the 
busiuess is, that.youug girls actually^ come’to 
