n all States. The
common-law nuisance was usually a nuisance to the sense of smell or
a danger to life, as, for instance, an unsanitary building or drain.
Noise, that is to say, extreme noise, might also be a nuisance, and
in England the interference with a man's right to light and air.
Legislation is now eagerly desired in many States of this country to
make in certain cases that which is a nuisance to the sense of sight
also a legal nuisance, as, for instance, the posting of offensive
bills on the fences, or the erection of huge advertising signs
in parks or public highways. Such a law was, however, held
unconstitutional in Massachusetts. There is some legislation against
the blowing of steam whistles by locomotives, although I believe
none against the morning whistle of factories, and some against the
emission of black smoke in specified durations or quantities.

But perhaps the most important legislation affecting simple matters of
business other than the line of statutes already mentioned, making new
negotiable instruments and controlling the title of property by the
possession of a bill of exchange, bill of lading, warehouse or trust
receipt, are those statutes prohibiting the buying of "futures," or
the enforcement of gambling contracts to buy or sell stocks or shares
or other commodities without actual or intended change of possession,
which we have necessarily referred to in our discussion of restraint
of trade (chapter 4). There is a very decided tendency throughout the
country, particularly in the South, to prohibit all buying or selling
of futures, that is to say, of a crop not actually sold, or of any
article where physical delivery is never intended, and it will be
remembered we found plenty of precedent for such legislation in
early English statutes. Gambling contracts may be forbidden only in
specified places, such as stock exchanges; and the buying of futures
may be specially permitted to favored persons, such as actual
manufacturers intending to use the goods; and both such statutes will
be held constitutional and not an undue interference with the liberty
of contract. These matters were largely covered by the statutes of
forestalling in early times. Legislation more distinctly modern is
that against sales in bulk, and against department stores; more
striking still is the statute, already passed in Wisconsin and
Virginia, forbidding all tips, commissions, or private advantages
secured by any servant o