Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1886-04-15
LEGAL NOISE.
Vhnt tho Law Allows ana What IL
Declares a Nuisance.

Declares a Nuisance.
Every good citizen is interested in
knowing how much noise the law will
compel him to endure at the hands of
his neighbors without redress, and
many citizens who are not good will
doubtless like to ascertain how much
noise they can inflict upon their neigh
bors without fear of punishment. Sew
cral decisions bearing upon these points
have lately been made by the courts.
One broad principle well established in
the law Of noise, both in this country
and England, curiously illustrates the
serious bent of our Anglo Saxon nature,
and that is the sharp distinction drawn
between money-making noises and those
which are made in the pursuit of pleas
ure. The law is tender to n steam en-
gine or boiler maker, and will allow
them to disturb whole neighborhood
with impunity, but it is severe upon
brass band or game of skittles. The
good citizen must be very wary about
playing bowls or skittles in populous
places. The Italians order this matter
differently, and restrain blacksmiths,
bolermakers, ETC., within somewhat
close limits as to time and place, where
as they allow musical merrymakers to
make night hideous or beautiful, as the
case may be, without any restraint
whatever.
The dog, in English and American
Jurisprudence stands upon the border
line, because he can be considered in
either aspect-as kept for use, when
watch dog, or for pleasure, when re-
garded merely rs a companion, or an
ornament. Here, however, we run
against another principle of the COM
mon law, according to which dogs are
privileged persons. For instance, it is
unlawful for farmer to shoot another's
dog who has eaten his sheep, provided
it be the ANIMALS first offense of that
kind; for the dog who is young in the
sin of sheep-stealing may repent and
lead respectful life thereafter; but if
he has already been convicted of the
crime, then it is lawful to shoot him.
In other words, as Lord Mansfield once
said: THE law allows every dog in
England one bite at a sheep"
1t has, however, been held that "the
noise produced by a dog barking in the
night is nuisance, and that the man
may shoot the dog and abate the nui-
sance when on his own PREMISES" that
is, we presume, when the dog is on his
own, the shooters, premises, for it has
never been lawful for a man to stand
on his own premises and shoot dog in
his neighbours yard. A great Judge,
Lord Kenyon, held that dog barking
at night is not Il nuisance, but it is
doubtful if this would be considered
good law at the present day. Accord
ing to the definition given by one
writer, n noise is nuisance when it is
unusual, ill-timcd, or deafening."
This is plainly incorrect, for the noise
of a nightingale in the streets of Bos-
ton would be ''u1usual," but hardly
nuisance. lie very 'll-timed" noises
are also, in the eyes of the law, not nui-
sances. Thus it has been held in the
case of Pool against Higginson and
DAILY that it is not n nuisance for the
parent of an infant suffering from collie
to trundle a baby-carriage all night in
! clearinghouse over the head of
hnnhnlnr
may not have been unusual and perhaps
was not deafening, but it would be an
abuse of language to say that it was
not ''ill-timed." Probably what saved
the parent in this case was the fact that
the noise was useful, for the evidence
tended to show that the baby was re-
licvcd by the trundling. On the other
hand, useless noises, 'such as con-
cert we quote from decision of the
supreme court of Massachusetts, al
though they disturb but single person,
may constitute nuisance" 1t has
very properly been held that ''show
having brass bands, when continued
two weeks" is nuisance. It is not
likely that many people will quarrel
with this decision.
A kindred subject is that of nuisance
| by vibration. If man attempts to
operate n steam hammer next door to q
dwelling-housc the law will restrain
him. One authority states the rule as
follows: The vibration must produce
such a condition of things as, in the
Judgment of reasonable men, is natur-
ally productive of actual physical dis
comfort to persons of ordinary sensi-
bilities and of ordinary tastes and hab-
its" The words in italics seem to i'm
ply that some persons like more vibra-
ton than others, and are in the habit of
"vibratingn themselves.
Residents in the Back bay who are
accustomed to pile-drivers in their close
vicinity may be said to have acquired
the habit of vibrating, but we doubt if
they have any "taste" for it. How
ever this may be, the sum of the matter
is that in the interest of trade or manu-
features you may vibrate and deafen
your neighbor with few restrictions, but
that for purposes of pleasure your
faculty of noisemaking must severely
be epressed.-Boston advertiser.