Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1895-06-07

the extent of the actual occupation and
use. There can be no constructive pos
session beyond the limits which are de.
fined by such use, or by other marks or
boundaries marking the extent of the
claim. In the case of the highway or
street across the southerly side of the
common, there are no marks or bounds to
extend the right of the town therein beyond
the line of actual travel.
The law under which the Brattleboro
Street Railroad company is constructing its
road provides that it shall be built within
the limits of the public streets and high
ways of the town, and it cannot be con
structed elsewhere except by purchase of
lands, as the company has no power to
condemn lands for its uses. The agree
ment made between the selectmen and the
railroad company, under date of May T.
and which Chancellor Rowell held to be
W permission granted by the selectmen
to occupy the streets and highways, located
the road from near the residence of 5. W.
Kimball where the street crossing the
common intersects North Main street, as
follows: "Thence We sterly along the north
side of the street crossing the common to
Asylum street." Why does the company
not confine itself to the location thus
clerks office? Why mutilate the common
that has been kept up, beautifed and
adorned at great expense? Evidently for
two reasons. First, the company claims
that by making a broader circuit around
the Kimbal corner it will be a saving in
the matter of expense, so far as motive
power is concerned. That is a considera-
ton in which the company alone is con-
cerned. Second, they will, by leaving the
street and entering upon the common,
save the further expense of removing the
snow from the street in the winter, so that
the public travel therein will no. be i'm
peded. Now to follow the line of their 10
cation will not require the company TO
make so sharp a curve near the Kimball
place as it will to enter Oak street from
Chaplin street, nor so sharp a curve as you
will find in many places in other villages
and cities where they operate trolley rail
way.
The charter of the village of Brattleboro
places the public parks and commons of
the village under the charge of the bailiffs,
and it is made their duty to protect them,
not only against the vandalism of private
parties, but of corporations as well. AL
good citizens hope that our baiiffs, or
majority of them at least, possess n little
VI Iut INDEPENDENT SDlIlI Vi OuI ldlutISs
and will not suffer the rights of the public
to be encroached upon by railroad cor
poration that has already got its grip upon
our streets and highways.
The selectman of the town have the
power by law to lay out and construct
highways and streets whenever in their
opinion the public good or the necessity
and convenience of the inhabitants of the
town require it. 1t now remains to be
seen whether our board of selectmen can
hold that the public good, or the conven-
fence and necessity of individuals require
the laying out, or the widening of the
highway across the common, in order to
enable the railroad company to save the
expense of providing a little more motive
power to propel its cars around a sharp
curve in the highway; or from removing a
larger amount of snow in the winter. If
they can see it in that light, and act ac-
cordingly, and the good people of the town
justify them in l., then let us hear no more
of the cry against capitalists and monopo-
lies, and corporations without souls. The
Brattleboro Street Railroad company is
like all other corporations, with a greed
that is limitless. The company has al
ready constructed its road through lands
belonging to the village, and which were
conveyed as a site for the "Wells foun-
tain" and have practically destroyed the
approach to the fountain with teams from
the east side thereof.
KITTREDGE HASKINs.