town, may

assume franchises.

shall transfer and assign to said town all the rights and fran- CHAP. 230 chises hereby granted, and it may thereafterwards exercise and enjoy the same as fully as if granted to said town direct. At any time within ten years from the approval of this act, the said town may purchase from said company all its property and franchises upon such terms as may be agreed upon. The said town is authorized to sell to said company its pipes and hydrants now located therein.

corrupting

injuring works.

SECT. 7. Any person who shall willfully and maliciously Penalty, for corrupt the waters of any of the sources of supply, or reservoirs water or of said corporation, or who shall leave or throw any offensive matter or materials upon them when frozen over, or who shall willfully injure any reservoir, conduit, pipe, hydrant, engine, water wheel, or any other property, held, owned or used by said corporation for the purposes of this act, shall pay three times the amount of damages to said corporation, to be recovered in any proper action; and any person convicted of any of said acts aforesaid, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding one year.

SECT. 8. Said company shall have power to cross any water course, private or public sewer, or to change the direction thereof when necessary, but in such manner as not to obstruct or impair the use thereof.

pay

May cross any sewer.

water course or

Liable for damages to

May purchase

property of any

SECT. 9. Said company shall in all cases be liable to to said town all sums recovered against it for damages by highways. reason of any defect in any highway, way or street therein, occasioned by any fault or neglect of said company, together with reasonable counsel fees and costs incurred in defending such suits with interest on the same; provided, said company shall have notice of any suit wherein such damages are claimed and shall be allowed to defend the same at its own expense. SECT. 10. The said company is authorized to acquire by purchase or lease the franchises and property of any electric light company hereafter located in said Pittsfield and organized to supply said town, or any part thereof with light, heat and power by electricity, and any such electric light company is hereby authorized to make such sale or lease. After such sale or lease the said water company may exercise and enjoy all franchises so acquired; and, thereafterwards, may contract with said town or any village corporation, for a term of years, for the public lighting therein.

electric light

company.

CHAP. 231

First meeting, how called.

SECT. 11. The first meeting of said company may be called by a written notice thereof, signed by any two corporators served upon each corporator by copy in hand, or sent by mail, seven days before the time of meeting.

SECT. 12. This act shall take effect when approved.

Approved March 17, 1891.

Corporators.

-corporate name.

-authorized to construct line

upon any

highway.

May construct

lines in Somer

counties.

Chapter 231.

An Act to incorporate the Northern Maine Shaver Molecular Telephone and Telegraph
Company.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in Legislature assembled, as follows:

SECT. 1. Charles F. Jones, George B. Safford, F. R. Buck and E. C. Emery, their associates, successors and assigns, are hereby created a body corporate, by name of the Northern Maine Shaver Molecular Telephone and Telegraph Company, with all the rights and privileges, and subject to all the duties provided by the general laws of this state, relating to corporations, with power by that name to sue and be sued, to have and use a common seal, and the same to change at pleasure; to establish any and all by-laws and regulations, for the management of their affairs, not repugnant to the laws of this state; to do and perform any and all other lawful acts incident to corporations of similar character; and said company shall have the right to locate and construct its lines upon and along any public highway, bridge or private lands, or along and upon the line of any railroad, in, through and about all the towns and cities in Somerset and Franklin counties, but in such manner as not to incommode or endanger the customary public use thereof; and the company may cut down any trees standing within the limits of any highway, except ornamental, fruit or shade trees, when necessary for the erection, use or safety of its lines.

SECT. 2. Said corporation is hereby authorized to conset and Franklin struct, maintain and operate telephone and telegraph lines throughout the length and breadth of Somerset and Franklin counties, with as many wires and branches as they may see fit, commencing and terminating at such point or points, as they may select hereafter within the limits aforesaid, and

subject to the provisions of chapter three hundred and seventyeight of the public laws of eighteen hundred and eighty-five, and with the power to establish and collect tolls on said line or lines.

CHAP. 231

connect with

SECT. 3. Said corporation is hereby authorized and Authorized to empowered to connect its line or lines with those of any other other lines. telephone or telegraph company or corporation, or to sell or lease its line or lines of telephone and property, and telegraph and property, in whole or in part, either before or after completion, to any person or persons, or to any other telephone or telegraph company or corporation, upon such terms as may be agreed by the contracting parties, which sale or lease shall be binding upon the parties; or may purchase or lease any other line or lines of telephone or telegraph upon such terms and conditions as may be agreed by the parties thereto. SECT. 4. Any person or corporation purchasing from the corporation hereby created, the right to use its telephones for corporations any part or parts or the counties of Somerset and Franklin, is hereby invested with all the powers and privileges by this act conferred upon the Northern Maine Shaver Molecular Telephone and Telegraph Company, subject to all the duties and liabilities hereby imposed in said part or parts of said counties of Somerset and Franklin, the said corporation is hereby authorized to assign and transfer so much of the franchise hereby granted as may be necessary for the purpose of this section.

Persons and

purchasing rights, invested

with me company.

powers as

telegraphic

SECT. 5. Said company may use such telegraphic appli- May use any ances as may be necessary or convenient for the dispatch of appliances. their business.

SECT. 6. The capital stock of said company shall be of Capital stock. such an amount as they may, from time to time, determine to be necessary, not exceeding fifty thousand dollars, for the exclusive purpose of purchasing, constructing, maintaining and operating telephone and telegraph lines hereby authorized and contemplated, and they may purchase, hold and dispose of such personal and real estate, as may be necessary for that purpose, not exceeding fifty thousand dollars, and shall have power by agreement with other persons, or bodies corporate, to connect its lines with other telephone or telegraph lines, within or without the state.

Sect. 7. If the land of any individual or corporation is taken under this act, and the parties cannot agree on the

Damages, how

estimated, in

case of

disagreement.

CHAP. 232 damages occasioned thereby, they shall be estimated, secured and paid in the manner provided in case of land taken for railroads.

First meeting, how called.

SECT. 8. Any two of the corporators named in this act may call the first meeting of the corporation, by mailing a written notice, signed by both, to each of the other corporators, seven days at least, before the day of the meeting, naming the time, place and purposes of such meeting, and at such meeting, by-laws may be adopted, present amount of capital stock fixed, and any corporate business transacted.

SECT. 9. This act shall take effect when approved.

Approved March 17, 1891.

Charter, amended.

Tolls, granted.

-lien on logs.

Chapter 232.

An Act to amend "An Act to incorporate the Thorn Brook Dam Company."

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in Legislature assembled, as follows:

SECT. 1. Section four of said act is hereby amended by striking out that part which commences in the third line with the words "twenty-five," and continuing to the words "and said corporation," in the seventh line, and inserting the following, 'of fifty cents for each thousand feet board measure, woods scale, for all logs and lumber put into said brook above Bog brook, and forty cents for each thousand feet put into said brook below Bog brook, and fifteen cents for each thousand feet put into said south branch of the Piscataquis river,' and further by striking out after the word "Kingsbury" in the twenty-first line the words "and at Weeks' mill in Abbot," so that it shall read when amended, as follows:

SECT. 4. The said corporation may demand and receive a toll upon all logs and lumber which may pass through or over said dams, and improvements of said corporation of fifty cents for each thousand feet board measure, woods scale, for all logs and lumber put into said brook above Bog brook, and forty cents for each thousand feet put into said brook below Bog brook, and fifteen cents for each thousand feet put into the south branch of Piscataquis river, and said corporation shall have a lien upon all logs and lumber which may pass through or over any of its said dams and improvements for the

payment of said tolls, but the logs of each particular mark shall CHAP. 233 be holden only for the tolls of such mark, and if such toll is not paid within twenty days after such logs, or a major part of them, shall arrive at Penobscot boom, or place of manufacture, said corporation may seize such logs and lumber and sell at public auction so many thereof as shall be necessary to pay such tolls, costs and charges, notice of the time and place of such sale being first given ten days prior to said sale in some newspaper printed in Bangor, and in the county of Piscataquis. But the above tolls shall in no case apply to any logs and lumber put into said Thorn brook and manufactured at E. A. Flanders' mills in Kingsbury in said county.'

SECT. 2. Section five of said act is hereby amended by Sec. 5, amended. striking out the words "the tolls shall cease," and adding 'then the tolls shall be reduced to a sum sufficient to keep said dams and improvements in reasonable repair, and if said dam and dams are not kept in reasonable repair, logs passing over the same shall be free of tolls,' so it shall read, when amended, as follows:

shall be
reduced.

'SECT. 5. When said corporation shall from tolls be reim- When tolls bursed for its expenditures in making said dams and improvements and six per cent annual interest thereon, then the tolls shall be reduced to a sum sufficient to keep said dams and improvements in reasonable repair, and it said dam and dams are not kept in reasonable repair, logs passing over the same shall be free of tolls.'

SECT. 3. This act shall take effect when approved.

Approved March 17, 1891.

Chapter 233.

An Act to incorporate the Central Maine Shaver Molecular Telephone and Telegraph

Company.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives

in Legislature assembled, as follows:

SECT. 1. J. H. Manley, G. A. Cony, Charles H. White, Corporators. E. Stone, D. A. Cony, B. T. Sanborn, C. S. Hichborn, E. G. Storer, E. E. Davis, M. S. Campbell, E. H. Walker, Thomas J. Lynch, G. A. Robertson, F. S. Lyman, their associates, successors and assigns, are hereby created a body