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ient and suitable railings every road which passes over a bank, bridge, or along a precipice, excavation, or deep water; and it makes no difference whether these dangerous places are within or without the limits of the road, if they are so imminent to the line of public travel as to expose travellers to unusual hazard.[18] But towns are not obliged to put up railings merely to prevent travellers from straying out of the highway, where there is no unsafe place immediately contiguous to the way.[19] [17] 8 Allen, 473. [18] 13 Allen, 429. [19] 122 Mass. 389. The roads are for the use of travellers, and a city or town is not bound to keep up railings strong enough for idlers to lounge against or children to play upon.[20] [20] 3 Allen, 374; 8 Allen, 237. The travelled parts of all roads ought to be wide enough to allow of the ordinary shyings and frights of horses with safety, for shying is one of the natural habits of the animal;[21] although it seems that switching his tail over the reins is not a natural habit of the animal, as it has been decided that if a horse throws his tail over the reins and thereby a defect in the road is run against, no damages can be recovered.[22] [21] 100 Mass. 49. [22] 98 Mass. 578. CHAPTER VII. GUIDE-POSTS, DRINKING-TROUGHS, AND FOUNTAINS. The statutes undertake to provide for the erection and maintenance of guide-posts at suitable places on the public ways; but a person has to travel but little in many of the towns of the State to come to the conclusion that the law is either deficient in construction or a dead letter in execution. The law makes it incumbent upon the selectmen or road commissioners of each town to submit to the inhabitants, at every annual meeting, a report of all the places in which guide-posts are erected and maintained within the town, and of all places at which, in their opinion, they ought to be erected and maintained. For each neglect or refusal to make such report they shall severally forfeit ten dollars. After the report is made the town shall determine the several places at which guide-posts shall be erected and maintained, which shall be recorded in the town records. A town which neglects or refuses to determine such places, and to cause a record thereof to be made, shall forfeit five dollars for every month during which it neglects or refuses to do so. At each of the places determined by the
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