c thoroughfare may properly be used, and the damages
to the owner of the land are estimated with reference to such use; but
the land can be used for no other purpose, and when the servitude
ceases the land reverts to him free from encumbrance. During the
continuance of the servitude he is entitled to use the land, subject to
the easement, for any and all purposes not incompatible with the public
enjoyment. If the legislature authorizes the addition of any new
servitude, essentially distinct from the ordinary use of a highway,
like an elevated railroad, then the land-owner is entitled to
additional compensation; for it cannot be deemed, in law, to have been
within the contemplation of the parties, at the time of the laying out
of the road, that it might be used for such new and additional
purposes. It has been held in New York, Illinois, and some of the
United States circuit courts, that the use of a highway for a telegraph
line will entitle such owner to additional compensation; but in the
recent case of Pierce _v._ Drew[65] the majority of our Supreme Court
decided that the erection of a telegraph line is not a new servitude
for which the land-owner is entitled to additional compensation.

[65] 136 Mass. 75.

A minority of the court, in an able argument, maintained that the
erection of telegraph and telephone posts and wires along the roads,
fitted with cross-beams adapted for layer after layer of almost
countless wires, which necessitate to some extent the destruction of
trees along the highways or streets, the occupation of the ground,
the filling of the air, the interference with access to or escape
from buildings, the increased difficulty of putting out fires, the
obstruction of the view, the presentation of unsightly objects to
the eye, and the creation of unpleasant noises in the wind, is an
actual injury to abutting land along the line, and constitutes a new
and increased servitude, for which the land-owner is entitled to a
distinct compensation. After the rendering of the majority decision,
the legislature very promptly passed a law allowing an owner of land
abutting upon a highway along which telegraph or telephone, electric
light or electric power, lines shall be constructed, to recover
damages to the full extent of the injuries to his property, provided
he applies, within three months after such construction, to the
mayor and aldermen or selectmen to assess and appraise his
damage.[66]

[66]