Lexington weekly intelligencer., 1883-02-17

repairs thereto; and if any person shall ride,
lead or drive any horses or other animals upon
such road within such fences and guards, other
than a farm crossing. without the consent of the
corporation. he shall. for everv such offense.
forfeit and pay sum not exceeding ten dollars,
and shall also pay all DANA ges which shall
be sustained thereby to the party aggrieved. II
any person not connected with employed
upon the railroad, shall walk upon the track or
| tracks thereof, except where the same shall be
laid across or along publicly travelled road or
street, or at any crossing as hereInbefore pro-
| vided, and shall reseive harm on account there
| of, such person shall be deemed to have COM
| mitted trespass in 80 walking upon eaid track
| in any action brought by him on account of such
| harm against the corporation owning such rail-
road. but not otherwise.
There is enc little CONJUNCTION, "and, :"
and two semi-colons, in the above bill
which make it a very bad one. The
question involved ls ofsuch Importance
that we print the bill in full, so that
we may not be misunderstood in what
we say regarding it. So lar as the
amendments set forth in the preamble
are concerned they are all right, but
in the body of the bill, whore the pro-
posed new section is given, as amend
ed, some designing person has evident
ly surreptitiously made a change in
the language, which renders this bill
very dangerous one. Under the pres
ent law railroads are required to fence
their tracks, and until they do SO they
are liable for double damages done to
all horses, cattle, mules or other ami
mails, without requiring proof of neg
ligence or willful injury. Then the
law goes on to say beginning the SEN
tence with capital letter. after
such fences, gates. farm.crossings and
cattle guards shall be duly made and
maintained, said corporation shall not
be liable tor any such damage, unless
negligently or willfally done." In this
senate bill number II, though the
change is not set out as All amend
ment, as required by the constitution,
this 10 altered and made to read as fol-
lows, the preceding word "cattle-
guards" being followed by Q semi
colon, sand such iences, gates, farm
crossings and oattle-guards shall be
duly made and maintained; said corpo-
ration shall not be liable .fo,. any such
damages, unles negliasntly or will
fully done. .-..
Aud we are told by the newspapers
that the state senate of Missouri passed
thing like that UNANIMOUSLY.
lit is the intention of the body to
let tha railroads have thIngs their own
way, at least for the sake of symmetry,
the words. land such fences, ga tes
farm crossings aud cattle guards shall
be duly made and maintained" should
be stricken out, being redundant,
as they occur higher up in the
section. The effect of the bill is
just the same as if they were not
there; and it practically, clearly, and
uudisputably provides that, mot "a afte,'"
as in the present law, but before the
road complies with the law. they shall
only be liable for damages where neg
ligence or willful injury is proven.
Every body knows that this cannot be
done. The owner is very rarely pres
ent when animals are injured. Were
be there he would drive them
out of danger. The employees OF
the company naturally think all
such accidents unavoidable. The
result of the passage of this bill, as
it stands, will be to prevent all collec-
tions from railroads, and they will,
further, not care to fence when the
law cannot compel them to pay for
damages to stock. 1t would be hun
dred times better to kill the whole bill
than to pass it as it is, but it can
easily be amended in the house, by
putting a period after the word ''cat-
tle.guard." replacing the word "After"
for the word "and," and putting a
comma in place OF the succeeding
semi-colon.
The farmers in the legislature should
watch this bill. as there is evidence of
dishonesty in its present condition, the
change we have pointed out certainly
not being understood to::exist in it by
the senate. 1t would be unconstitu-
tional if passed, and the governor
should refuse to sign it, because this
most material of all its amendments is
not set out in the preamble; and it
could not in any event long remain on
the statute book but it should never be
allowed to get there. .-.. ...-s-
Every farmer who lives near rail-
road will observe the further course of
Mr.. Pehle's senate bill with much So
licitude. .....
We will just say in conclusion, that
having seen this bill reported In
newspaper we feared a typographical
error might have occurred, so sent to
Jefferson City for copy OF the bill.
This we have before US. and while we
are very credulous we can't quite
swallow the change in the important
word "and," taken in connection with
those two convenient semi-colons.
There is an African In that little wood.
pile. .s-.a