Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 October 1875 — The Law of the Rail. [ARTICLE]

The Law of the Rail.

Some one, who has takerr-the trouble to post himself on the law governing railroad passenger travel, says that extra charges for failure to buy tickets are universally sustained by the courts, but there must be a full opportunity to buy afforded by. the ticket-seller. Passengers must show tickets when asked for. As to stopping off, there is only one decision, which is that a passenger cannot stop off and resume his journey without the previous assent of £he company. As to the obligation of the road to furnish a seat to a passenger, a decision says: “A passenger who exhibits his ticket need not surrender it until he has been furnished with a seat.” A railroad is not liable for things stolen out of a passenger’s seat, there being no previous delivery' to the company’s servants ; for the same reason the company is not liable for baggage in the passenger’s own care. Passengers who neglecrtolook after their own baggage on arrival at their destination cannot Ttcover it. if it is lost without fault of the carrier. Baggage left in station-houses fob the passenger’s convenience, after it has reached its destination, xonics under a new class of rights and duties, the bag-gage-umster assuming the position ot a gratuitous bailee, who only becomes liable in cases of gross negligence. The obligation of jaie railroad as a carrier ceases when it has delivered it to its owner at the , place of destination, or when he has had reasonable opportunity of receiving and removing it. It will interest sportsmen to know that they may recover for the valud of dogs when they,intrust them to baggage-masters for hire because of their exclusion from tlm passenger cars.—Scie/i----iyic American, j -