“How is the law in England?”
“It has been held there, and in Canada, that the party employing the telegraph company, or sending the message on his own account, is the only party who can maintain an action for any failure to perform their duty in respect of the message.[727] And where a message was sent for three rifles and when received it read the rifles, and the plaintiff supposing it referred to a former communication sent the sender of the despatch fifty rifles, the number before named; and these were refused; the plaintiff sued the sender for the price, but the court held that the defendant was not responsible for the mistake in transmitting the message, and that the plaintiff could only recover for three rifles.[728] The American jurists think that the English courts are guilty of an inconsistency, if not of a blunder, in holding that the only party who can sue the company is not responsible for the mistake. They say that the party who suffers by the mistake should, at all events, be allowed to maintain an action to recover the damage sustained by him; and they say that is the rule throughout the republic.[729] In an action against the company that delivers the message, where it has passed over several lines, they may excuse themselves by showing that the negligence complained of was that of some prior line.[730] Where there are several connected lines the company that took the message are generally liable for any negligence or mistake in the transmission.”[731]
“It seems to be the law that the regulations of a telegraph company relieving them from liability, unless the message is repeated, are reasonable, and will free them from the effects of many mistakes;[732] but they will not be construed so as to release the company from liability occasioned by their own wilful misconduct or negligence,[733] as where our was changed into your,[734] or the message was never sent,[735] or delayed in delivery;[736] there must, however, be proof of negligence distinct from the infirmities of telegraphing.[737] Some of the American courts, however, have held that the receiver of the message is not bound by such a notice.[738] The company may restrict their liability on other points as well, by giving notice; but the restriction must be reasonable, not one, for instance, that the company would not be responsible for mistakes to an amount greater than that paid for the message.[739] The notice will, moreover, only benefit the company to which it is confined by the contract, and not a connecting line.[740]”
“But suppose one is not aware of these rules and regulations?”
“To prevent one recovering they must be brought home to his knowledge[741] but he will be presumed to know what is on the blank used, and to make the conditions thereon his own, whether he read them or not.”[742]
“Speaking about the freaks of the telegraph, did you see that one about the young parson who was about to start for his new parish, but was unexpectedly delayed by the inability of the Presbytery to ordain him? To explain his non-arrival he telegraphed to the church officials, ‘Presbytery lacked a quorum to ordain.’ In the course of its journey this got strangely metamorphosed, and the message-boy handed to the astonished deacons a telegram saying, “Presbytery tacked a worm on to Adam.” The sober elders were sorely discomposed and mystified, but after grave consultation the happy thought struck one of them that this was the new minister’s facetious way of announcing his marriage, and accordingly they provided lodgings for two instead of one.”
“That is rather rich.”
Thus chatting with my friend about the telegraph, the law and the profits thereof, occasionally indulging in the luxury of that odious weed of the great Sir Walter Raleigh, and frequently practising the bibulistic art, the time passed rapidly and pleasantly enough, and at length the shrill ear-piercing screech of a locomotive announced the arrival of the train, containing, as Horace neatly puts it, animæ dimidium meæ, or as ordinary folks say, “my better half.” After the usual osculatory exercises, I inspected the amount of her handboxes, bundles, satchels and checks, and concluded that it would be useless to expect a cabby to carry home such a vast amount of baggage, and at well nigh the noon of night it would be equally vain to endeavor to obtain the services of a carter; so, knowing that travellers have a reasonable time to claim and remove their baggage, I determined to leave it at the station for the night.
With the checks clinking together in my pocket and my wife by my side, and Eliza Jane in front of me, I drove home comfortably, thinking that in the morning the checks would bring forth the trunks; but alas! I leant upon a broken reed, and ere the morrow’s light appeared the baggage and my right to recover for its loss had vanished for ever and ever, like a morning mist before the rising sun.
A fire broke out at the station and favored by the winds of heaven it grew into a mighty conflagration, and before the morning watch the devouring element had consumed the station and all that therein was.