annot look to the
carrier for compensation.

The law requires carriers to carry all who pay their fare, and are in
a sufficiently intelligent condition to take care of themselves. In
like manner the law requires them to take all freight that may be
offered, though it may make reasonable rules with regard to the time
of receiving it, mode of packing, etc. A regulation therefore that
furniture must be crated is reasonable, and a carrier may refuse to
take it unless it is thus prepared for shipment. So also is a rule
requiring glass to be boxed though the distance may be short for
carrying it. A carrier may also object to carrying things out of
season, potatoes or fruit for example in the winter in the northern
states where there is great danger of freezing, unless the shipper
assumes the risk. Vast quantities of perishable goods are carried, but
usually under definite regulations and contracts. So, too, the shipper
must declare the nature of the thing carried. Should he put diamonds
in his trunk, he could not recover for their loss, for he has no
business to carry such a valuable thing in that way. He must make
known the contents for the carrier's protection. He cannot carry an
explosive in secrecy. To attempt to do such a thing is a manifest
wrong to the carrier.

A carrier has a lien or right to hold the freight until the charge
for transporting it is paid, but if it is delivered, the lien ceases
and cannot be restored. If the carrier keeps it until the freight
charge is paid discretion must be used, and unnecessary and
unreasonable expense must not be incurred in so doing.

A different rule applies to carrying passengers than applies to
freight, because the latter is under its complete control, while
passengers are not. Nevertheless the law requires a high degree of
care in carrying passengers, and is responsible in money damages
should injury occur through the carrier's negligence. In many states
statutes exist limiting the amount that a carrier must pay when life
is lost through its negligence to five thousand dollars or other sum,
while a much larger sum is often recovered for an injury, loss of a
leg, arm or the like. From the carrier's point of view therefore it is
often obliged to pay less for killing than for injuring people; this
is one of the strange anomalies of the law.

When a passenger is injured and no agreement can be made with the
carrier for compensation, a suit is the result and the chief questio