Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/298

 286 INN INNKEEPER and runs with great impetuosity through the northern district, particularly the Upper and Lower Inn valleys, to the border of S. E. Ba- varia, which it crosses a few miles N. of the fortress of Kufstein. After a course N. and then E. for about 90 m. through Bavaria, it reaches Braunau on the Austrian frontier, whence it flows in a N. direction, forming the boundary between Bavaria and Austria, until it joins the Danube at Passau, after an entire course of 315 m. Navigation begins at Inns- Eruck, and becomes considerable below Hall, teamboats ply on the Inn, and on its largest tributary the Salzach. The beautiful valley of the Engadine, which is situated near the sources and extends along the banks of the Inn, is also called the valley of the Upper Inn, where in the Romansh language, which is spoken by the inhabitants, fhe name of the river is On. INN, according to judicial decision, " a house where the traveller is furnished with every- thing which he has occasion for while on his way." It is sometimes important to determine whether a house be an inn and the master an innkeeper, because of the legal rights, on the one hand, and on the other the peculiar and stringent liabilities, of an innkeeper. It is clear that while a sign is the usual and proper evidence that a house is an inn, it is neither essential to an inn nor the only evidence of it. A mere coffee house, or an eating room, is not an inn. Neither is a boarding house ; but the distinction between a boarding house and an inn is not always easy, in fact or in law ; and it is the more difficult, because the same house may be an inn as to some persons within it, and a boarding house as to others. The best test of this question we apprehend to be the transient- ness or the fixedness of the alleged guest. The old law constantly held that an inn is for the benefit transientiuin. By this is not meant that a guest of an inn loses his rights, or that the innkeeper loses his rights over him, if the guest remains a long time in the inn, provided he remains there as in an inn ; and he does so, if ho makes no contract, and comes under no obligation, to stay a moment longer than he chooses to. If he goes to an inn, occupies his room, and takes his meals, with the right at any moment of going away, and of paying for what he has had up to that moment, and nothing more, he continues to be a guest although he remain there a year or years. But if, upon going there, or at any time afterward, he makes a bargain by force of w r hich he must stay at least so long, whether it be a week or a month, he is no longer a " transient person," and loses the peculiar character of a guest at an inn. INNESS, George, an American landscape paint- er, born in Newburgh, N. Y., May 1, 1825. His parents removed to Newark, N. J., where he early learned drawing and the rudiments of oil painting. He has from his youth been subject to epilepsy, which has interfered materially with the consecutive pursuit of his art. When 16 years old he went to New York to study engraving, but ill health obliged him to return home, where he continued to sketch and paint until his 20th year. He then passed a month in the studio of Regis Gignoux in New York, which is all the regular instruction ho ever had. He made two visits to Europe, and re- sided for some time in Italy. For a number of years after his return he made his home near Boston, where some of his best pictures were painted. In 1862 he went to reside at Eagleswood, near Perth Amboy, N. J., and a few years later removed to New York. Inness is very unequal in his efforts, but lovers of na- ture find much to admire in his landscapes. He inclines to the French school in style, and has been compared not inaptly with Rousseau. A follower of Swedenborg, he deals largely in allegory, and uses the forms of nature to illus- trate thought. Among his best pictures are " The Sign of Promise," " Peace and Plenty," " Going out of the Woods," " A Vision of Faith," " The Valley of the Shadow of Death," "The Apocalyptic Vision of the New Jeru- salem and River of Life," "A Passing Storm," "Summer Afternoon," "Twilight," and "Light Triumphant." In 1870 he went with his fam- ily to Rome, where he still remains. To the na- tional academy exhibition of 1874 he sent a pic- ture entitled " Washing Day, near Perugia." INNKEEPER. Public policy imposes upon an innkeeper a heavy responsibility. (See BAIL- MENT.) He is liable as an insurer of the prop- erty of his guests within his charge, against everything but the act of God or the public enemy, or the negligence or fraud of the own- er of the property. He would therefore be liable, for a loss caused by his own servants, by other guests, by robbery within or from with- out the house, burglary, riots, or mobs ; for a mob is not a public enemy in this sense. It is however a good defence to the innkeeper, that his guest's loss was caused by the guest's ser- vant or company, or by his negligence of any kind ; or that the property was never in charge of the innkeeper because the guest had retained it in his own possession and under his own control. This last defence, however, is not made out by merely showing that the guest re- ceived and accepted a key of the room or of a closet, or that he exercised some preference and gave some directions as to where the prop- erty should be placed. But still an innkeeper may protect himself by requiring reasonable precautions from the guest. Thus, if he ap- point a certain place of deposit for certain goods, as a safe for money or jewelry, with notice to his guests that he will not be respon- sible for their property of this kind if not put there, and a guest disregard this, the innkeeper is exonerated. But no especial delivery of the goods to the innkeeper is necessary to charge him, if they are in his custody in the usual manner. It is also held that he cannot refuse to receive a guest without good cause, as that his house is full, or that the guest is disorderly, or has infectious disease, or disreputable habits