porarily obstructed under municipal authority for other necessary and appropriate municipal purposes, not inconsistent with, or destructive of, the primary use of public travel.

Such obstruction must be reasonable, and not so long continued as to prove a nuisance. The municipal license will not protect the licensee from liability for damages to any abutting owner suffering special injury from the obstruction. And for the protection of the public the city may require that the owner or contractor erecting a building shall build a covered passway over the sidewalk.

The municipality may also authorize the use of streets for telegraph, telephone, and electric service, for street and commercial railways, and may allow below the surface the laying of gas, water, and sewer mains and pipes, and the construction of subways. Poles may not be planted or wires strung for electric use in the streets without express consent of the municipality; and it may not grant this privilege unless thereunto expressly authorized.

The municipality having control of its streets below as well as above the surface, may, therefore, grant to public service corporations the right to lay pipes and mains and to construct subways for all proper municipal purposes. These may include not only pipes and mains for water, gas, and sewage, in case the city has no public system, but may also include conduits for electric wires and subways for railroads.

If electric wires become so numerous as to impair the public safety, the municipality may require that

they shall be taken off the streets and placed below the surface.

The power of a municipality to authorize the construction of street railways in its streets has been thoroughly established and uniformly recognized; but the city may impose such conditions as the safety of the public or the welfare of the municipality may require, not only at the time of granting the privilege, but also thereafter, in the exercise of the police powers; and for a breach of these conditions, franchises may be declared forfeited by the court.

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Possessing paramount power over streets the state may vacate them, or authorize their vacation by the municipality; but the vacation must be for public, not private, benefit. Abutters have peculiar rights in streets, and may not only stand surely upon process of law" for protection, but may also insist upon the constitutional right to compensation for the appropriation of their easement of access to the public use.

89. Abutting owners.-An abutting owner shares in all the rights of the general public, and, in addition thereto, has such special rights as arise from his property abutting on the street. Among these is the right of free and unimpeded ingress and egress to and from his property, even though he may thereby cause temporary inconvenience to the public in general. The convenient use of property, in urban communities, is dependent upon connections with sewer, water and gas pipes, which may not be denied.

An abutting owner has at common law no right to lateral support of street soil, and none can be acquired

by prescription or lapse of time; so, though the street grade may be changed so that his fences fall, he has no action therefor.

If additional burdens are imposed upon a street, abutting owners are entitled to compensation, if damaged; and this notwithstanding the fee is in the public, or the municipality for public use. They may recover damages for the construction of a common traffic railroad, but not for a mere street railway, whether operated by cable, electric, or horse power.

The abutter has no right to project his buildings, or any part thereof or attachment thereto, over the street line, without municipal consent; but a city may permit abutters to extend balconies, bay windows, awnings, or signs into streets.

90. Sewers.-The construction of sewers is an inherent municipal function for sanitary purposes, and may be imperatively imposed upon a municipality by the state.

Unless the duty is positively imposed by the state, the municipality has discretion to determine whether it will construct a system of sewers, and also the nature and cost of the system. This function is legislative, and the municipality cannot be held liable for failure to exercise it, and thus provide a system of its own, or for mistake made in the choice of the systems offered.

The municipality may, of course, use the streets for the construction of a sewerage system, and it has been held that it has also the power of eminent domain over other property for this purpose.

It is competent for the city to assess the expense of

building a sewerage system for a certain street against the abutting property, and to require all persons residing on the street to connect with the sewer. No property-owner can be prevented from tapping a municipal sewer.

A sewer being once completed, it is the imperative municipal duty to see that it is properly cared for; and for failure to perform this function the municipality may become liable in damages.

91. Parks.-Public parks and squares are proper objects of municipal concern, as means for the promotion of public health and comfort; and property may be acquired and held by a municipality for these recognized purposes.

Public parks, such as Hyde Park and Bois de Boulogne, and public squares, such as Trafalgar Square and the Place de la Concorde, have long been recognized and maintained as municipal attractions and conveniences for the inhabitants and sojourners of a city. Recognizing these as an important public use, the states have generally conferred upon municipalities the sovereign power of eminent domain for the purpose of condemning property for the public use in parks and squares, and have often authorized this to be done beyond the limits of the municipal corporation.

But though parks and squares are recognized as a public use, they are matters of municipal rather than governmental concern, and their establishment is within the discretion of the municipality.

It is obvious that the city may accept land dedicated for public parks and squares, and appropriate

money out of the municipal treasury for its improvement. A city cannot authorize the erection of any private building in a public square or park-not even a railway station or depot-and a lease of a park for private use is void. Ways may be opened through a park for pleasure driving and riding, like Rotten Row in Hyde Park; but they may not be used for traffic purposes.

The city may permit and provide for the erection of monuments, fountains, art galleries, and zoological buildings, and may pass ordinances for the protection of animals and birds therein.

92. Public buildings.-Public buildings are essential for municipal purposes, and the power to acquire land therefor, and erect and maintain necessary buildings thereon, is inherent in the municipal corporation. The city council possesses inherent power to provide appropriate room for its own meeting, and for the transaction of the necessary municipal business. Also, it must provide a proper place for the detention of municipal prisoners, and the proper housing and protection of its fire apparatus. And in general the municipality has implied power to erect and maintain any necessary public building.