of a mortgage or deed of trust heretofore made, or hereafter to be made, conveying the property and franchises of any such company, or under decree of any court, or under an execution issued against the property of said company; and said purchasing company shall have and possess all the rights, franchises and privileges heretofore enjoyed by the company whose property is so acquired, whether the same were acquired under grant from any State, municipality or other corporation; or may consolidate with any other telegraph company or corporation of this or any other State, under such name and with such capital stock, and upon such terms as may be agreed upon between such companies or corporations; and whenever such consolidation as aforesaid is made, a certificate of the same and of the particulars thereof shall be executed and acknowledged by the president or other principal officers of said corporations so consolidating, which said certificate shall be recorded in the clerk's office of the Superior Court of Baltimore city, if the principal office of the said consolidated corporation in this State is located in Baltimore city, or in the office of the clerk of the Circuit Court for that county in which the principal office of said consolidated company in this State is located, and when said consolidated company is formed it shall be subject to the provisions of this article as far as the same are applicable.

1888, art. 23, sec. 228. 1868, ch. 471, sec. 133.

328. Persons, associations or corporations, owning any telegraph line doing business within the State, shall receive despatches from and for other telegraph lines, associations and companies, and from and for any individual, and shall transmit such despatches in the manner established by the rules and regulations of such telegraph lines, and in the order in which they are received, with impartiality and good faith, under the penalty of one hundred dollars for every neglect or refusal so to do, to be recovered, with costs of suit, in the name and for the benefit of the person or persons sending or desiring to send such despatch; provided, however, that arrangements may be made with the proprietors or publishers of newspapers for transmission of intelligence of general and

public interest, for the purpose of publication out of its order. Birney v. N. Y. & W. Tel. Co., 18 Md. 341. U. S. Tel. Co. v. Gildersleeve, 29 Md. 232. Ches. and Pot. Tel. Co. v. B. & O. Tel. Co., 66 Md. 409.

Ibid. sec. 229. 1868, ch. 471, sec. 134.

329. Any person who shall unlawfully and intentionally injure, molest or destroy any of said lines, posts, piers or abutments, or the materials or property connected with the working of any telegraph lines, shall, on conviction thereof, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county or city jail not exceeding one year, or both, at the discretion of the court before which the conviction shall be had.

Ibid. sec. 230. 1868, ch. 471, sec. 135.

330. Any person connected with any such corporation in this State, either as clerk, operator, messenger, or in any other capacity, who shall wilfully divulge the contents or the nature of the contents of any private communication entrusted to him for transmission or delivery, or who shall wilfully refuse or neglect to transmit or deliver the same shall, on conviction before any court, be adjudged guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall suffer imprisonment in the jail in the county or city where such conviction shall be had, for a term of not more than three months, or shall be fined not exceeding five hundred dollars, in the discretion of the court.

1888, art. 23, sec. 231. 1868, ch. 471, sec. 136.

331. If the wires or cords of any telegraph line be located or stretched, or extended from one post or pole to another in such manner as to prevent the owner of any timber growing along the line of such telegraph corporation from cutting and felling the same, and the owner thereof in cutting or felling such timber shall injure the wires, cords or posts of such telegraph line, he shall not be liable to an action for damages, unless it shall appear that in such cutting and felling, or in having the same cut or felled, the said owner wilfully and intentionally injured such wires, cords and posts.

Ibid. sec. 232, 1884, ch. 360.

332. The provisions of the preceding Sections, 322 to 331, both inclusive, in relation to telegraph companies, shall likewise apply to and have full force and effect in respect to telephone companies created under the provisions of this article. Ches. and Pot. Tel. Co. v. B. & O. Tel. Co., 66 Md. 410. Telegraph Co. v. Pearce, 71 Md. 536. Ches. and Pot. Tel. Co. v. Mackenzie, 74 Md. 37.

1892, ch. 387, sec. 232A.

333. No individual company or corporation, now or hereafter owning, controlling, managing or operating any telephone line or lines within the limits of any city, town or village in the State of Maryland, shall charge, collect or receive, as rental for the use at any and all hours of the day and night, of such telephone and lines connecting with a central exchange, or point of communication through which conversation may be held, over all other lines connecting with such exchange, or point of communication, in such city or town, any sum exceeding six dollars and fifty cents per month, when one telephone only is rented by one individual, company or corporation, located within a radius of two miles from the central exchange, and one dollar additional per month for every additional mile distant from said exchange; where two or more telephones are rented by the same individual, company or corporation, located within a radius of two miles from the central exchange, the rental per month for each telephone so rented shall not exceed five dollars and fifty cents per month, and one dollar per month for every additional mile distant from said exchange; provided, that the individual, company or corporation desiring to use such telephone and lines shall agree to contract for the use of such telephone and lines for a period of not less than six months.

1892, ch. 387. 1896, ch. 139, sec. 232B.

334. Where any two cities, towns or villages in the State of Maryland are connected by wire, operated, managed, controlled or owned by any individual, company or corporation, the price for the use of any telephone for the purpose of conversation between such cities, towns or villages, shall, for each five minutes

or fraction of five minutes of such use, not exceed the amount hereby fixed, that is to say: where the distance does not exceed ten miles, fifteen cents; where the distance is more than ten miles and not more than thirty miles, twenty-five cents; where the distance is more than thirty miles and not more than fifty miles, one cent a mile; where the distance is more than fifty miles, fifty cents; and one-half a cent for each mile in excess of fifty miles.

1892, ch. 387, sec. 232c.

335. The word "telephone" wherever used in Sections 333 to 338, shall be construed to include, and consist of a receiver, a transmitter, a magnet or call-bell, or cell battery, a backboard, a battery box and all necessary appliances now and hereafter in use for and constituting a telephone equipment as now or heretofore rented by telephone companies to their patrons and subscribers.

Ibid. sec. 232D.

336. Every telephone company with wires wholly or partly within this State and engaged in a general telephone business shall, within the local limits of such telephone company's business, supply all applicants for telephone connections and facilities with such connections and facilities, without discrimination or partiality; provided such applicant comply or offer to comply with all reasonable regulations of the company; and no such company shall impose any condtions or restrictions upon any such applicant that are not imposed impartially upon all persons or companies in like situation, nor shall such companies discriminate against any individual or company engaged in any lawful business, or between individuals or companies engaged in the same business, by requiring, as a condition for furnishing such facilities that they shall not be used in the business of the applicant, or otherwise, for any lawful pur pose.

1892, ch. 387, sec. 232E.

337. Any owner, operator, agent or other person who shall collect or receive for the rental or use of any such telephone and line, any sum in excess of the ratio fixed by Sections 333

and 334 shall upon conviction be fined not less than one hundred dollars for each offense.

1894, ch. 207, sec. 232F.

338. But any person, firm or corporation may contract in writing or partly in print and partly in writing, and not otherwise, with any individual, company or corporation now or hereafter owning, controlling, managing or operating any telephone line or lines within the limits of this State, for such special form, description and amount of telephone equipment and service, expressed in such contract, as such person, firm or corporation may need, at such rates, and upon such terms and conditions as may be agreed upon between the parties to such contract, and be expressed therein, but shall not otherwise be entitled therto; and every form of such special contract, made for any year, shall constitute and be a form of contract for like special telephone equipment and service, into which every other person, firm or corporation in like situation with the person, firm or corporation so contracting and desiring a like special form, description and amount of telephone equipment and service shall have a right to enter, in such year, with the party so contracting for such telephone equip ment and service; the special contract mentioned in this section shall be entered into before such equipment and service are supplied; provided, however, that nothing in this section shall be so construed as to impair the obligation of the individual, company or corporation owning, controlling, managing or operating a telephone line or telephone lines within the limits of this State to furnish, in accordance with the requirements of Sections 333-337, and at the rates of charge mentioned in said Sections 333 and 334, telephone equipment and service of the kind and description which is now furnished by the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of Baltimore city, at the rate of charge mentioned in said Sections 333 and 334; and the said company, as a condition precedent to the exercise of any of the powers conferred by this section, shall forthwith file in the office of the clerk of the Court of Appeals of Maryland, to be by said clerk annexed to the original section filed in his offce, a full and adequate description in detail, and