The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-27
RAILROAD MUST
 PAY FOR DEAD DOG Dog Is Property According To
 The Georgia Law
SOME HUMOR OF COURT
Automobile Owner Sues Carnival Com pany for Damages for Running f Into Tent and Plaintiff
 Gets Verdict.

AlldHtd, DecemDer Zb--t6pecldl. )-PrOp- erty rights in the dog in Georgia are fully sustained by a decision of the state court of appeals handed down yesterday.
 The court holds that the wanton killing of dog by a railroad train makes the railroad company liable for payment for the value of the animal so killed.
 It seems that Bob Keers dog was killed by a train on the Southern railway run hing through Gordon county. Bob de- clared his dog was worth $50 and brought suit in a justice court for the amount He secured verdict for $17.5o. which was sustained by the superior court. and the railroad company brought the case up to the court of appeals
 In sustaining the action of the lower court in finding for Keel, the court of ap- peals says:
 There being evidence that, though the dog of the plaintiff was upon the railroad track for about minute before it was struck by the train and was in full view of the engineer for half a mile the engi- neer continuing the operation of the train at full speed. without sounding any alarm or making any other effort to pre- vent the killing of the dog. the jury was authorized to find that the killing was wanton or intentional. The verdict is, therefore, not contrary to law
 All of which Is a reminder that the new state law putting a tax of s1 on each dog owned in the state is about to become effective.
 Tn 1910 every Georgian who owns a dog must pay the state tax of s1 on 1t. or take the chances of the sheriff levying upon 1t for taxes.
 This constitutes an additional recogni- ton on the part of the state of a persons property rights in a dog, but just how far that recognition will be pleasing to the owners of dogs in Georgia remains to be seen
 There are numerous estimates as to what the dog tax will bring, running all the way from the pessimistic view, which puts it around 5000, up to the more cheer ful opinion, from the standpoint of the state at least, which places 1t at t1oo. 00e and even more It is problem which an- other year must solve.
 Humor In the Court.
 The most serious of courts will some times indulge sense of the ridiculous. The fact is well illustrated in a decisioa which the state court of appeals has just rendered in the case of the Great Cosmo- politan Shows ct al. vs- H. A. Pettey- that's the way the case sounds in the ap- pellate court.
 Pettey, who was driving an automobile on the streets Of Dawson. had an acci dent, the responsibility for which he put upon the Great Cosmopolitan Shows, which were exhibiting there, and brought suit for sq5 repairs. The superior court overruled a demurrer filed by the show company, and upon trial Pettey secured a verdict for $50, which the court of appeals has sustained.
 In opening the decision. which was written by Judge Arthur G. Powell, the court states:
 "To state the plaintiffs testimony as gathered from the brief of evidencei He was traveling east; he had approached Lee and stonewall,' had gone through the narrow space to the right of the Ghost Show had passed between the Snakes and the Crazy House, and was trying to pass in front of the Holy City when the accident happened"
 The court then explains that this was not a case of delirium tremens nor of in- itiation into a secret order, but of man
  son. which were ,artIy occupied by the attractions of street carnival. and con- tinues:
 Tt was after nightfall; but contrary to certain familiar traditions, there was no light on either the inside or the outside of the Holy City His automobile came in contact with certain guyropes and tent pins (appurtenances of the Holy Cty'). which were set out in that portion of the street he was trying to pass ana wnich Ia did not see on account of the dark ness. The automobile sustained severe rupture in the region of its mechanical viscera, besides other injuries not fatal, but more or less serious
 In the same decision the court taxes a little shot at petit juries;
 eve know of no better trfhunal' 1t says. "than petit jury to solve the questions of negligence and contributory negligence growing out of transaction ex delicto, between an automobile and a