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persons entitled to receive such message, the person so offending shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by a fine, not to exceed one thousand dollars, or imprisonment, not to exceed one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court, and shall, moreover, be liable, in treble damages, to the party injured, for all loss and damage sustained by reason of such wrongful act.

Sec. 6. If any person, not connected with any telegraph company, shall, by means of any machine, instrument, or contrivance, or in any other manner, willfully and fraudulently read, or attempt to read, any message, or to learn the contents thereof, whilst the same is being sent over any telegraph line, or shall willfully and fraudulently, or clandestinely, learn, or attempt to learn, the contents or meaning of any message, while the same is in any telegraph office, or is being received thereat, or sent therefrom, or shall use, or attempt to use, or communicate to others, any information so obtained by any person, the person so offending shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by fine, not to exceed one thousand dollars, or imprisonment, not to exceed cne year, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court.

Sec. 7. If any person shall, by the payment or promise of any bribe, inducement, or reward, procure, or attempt to procure, any telegraph agent, operator, or employee, to disclose any private message or the contents, purport, substance, or meaning thereof, or shall offer to any such agent, operator, or employee any bribe, compen sation, or reward, for the disclosure of any private information received by him, by reason of his trust as such agent, operator, or employee, or shall use, or attempt to use, any such information so obtained, the person so offending shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by fine not to exceed one thousand dollars, or imprisonment, not to exceed one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court.

Sec. 8. If any person shall willfully and maliciously cut, break, or throw down, any telegraph pole, or any tree, or other object, used in any line of telegraph, or shall willfully and maliciously break, displace, or injure, any insulator in use in any telegraph line, or shall willfully and maliciously cut, break, or remove from its insulators, any wire used as a telegraph line, or shall, by the attachment of a ground wire, or by any other contrivance, willfully and maliciously destroy the insulation of such telegraph line, or interrupt the transmission of the electric current through the same, or shall in any other manner willfully and maliciously injure, molest, or destroy, any property, or materials, appertaining to any telegraph line, or belonging to any telegraph company, or shall willfully and maliciously interfere with the use of any telegraph line, or obstruct or postpone the transmission of any message over the same, or procure, or advise, any such injury, interference, or obstruction, the person so offending shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by fine, not to exceed five hundred dollars, or imprisonment, not to exceed six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court; and shall, moreover, be liable to the telegraph company whose property is injured or line obstructed, in a sum equal to one hundred times the amount of actual damages sustained thereby.

Sec. 9. Any person offending against the provisions of section one, two, six, or seven, of this act, shall, in addition to the penalties therein prescribed, be liable in a civil suit for all damages occasioned thereby.

Sec. 10. All operators, clerks, and persons, in the employ of any telegraph company, whilst employed in the offices of said company, or along the route of its telegraph lines, shall be exempt from militia duty, and from serving on juries, and from any fine or penalty for the neglect thereof.

Sec. 11. Contracts made by telegraph shall be deemed to be contracts in writing; and all communications sent by telegraph, and signed by the person or persons sending the same, or by his or their authority, shall be held and deemed to be communications in writing.

Sec. 12. Whenever any notice, information, or intelligence, written or otherwise, is required to be given, the same may be given by telegraph; provided, that the dispatch containing the same be delivered to the person entitled thereto, or to his agent or attor ney. Notice by telegraph, shall be deemed actual notice.

Sec. 13. Any power of attorney, or other instrument in writing, duly proved or acknowledged, and certified, so as to be entitled to record, may, together with the certificate of proof or acknowledg ment, be sent by telegraph, and the telegraphic copy or duplicate thereof, shall, prima facie, have the same force and effect, in all respects, and may be admitted to record and recorded in the same manner and with like effect as the original.

Sec. 14. Checks, due bills, promissory notes, bills of exchange, and all orders or agreements for the payment or delivery of money, or other thing of value, may be made or drawn, by telegraph, and when so made or drawn, shall have the same force and effect to charge the maker, drawer, indorser, or acceptor, thereof, and shall create the same rights and equities in favor of the payee, drawee, indorsee, acceptor, holder, or bearer, thereof, and shall be entitled to the same days of grace as if duly made or drawn, and delivered in writing, but it shall not be lawful for any person, other than the maker or drawer thereof, to cause any such instrument to be sent by telegraph, so as to charge any person thereby. Except as hereinafter, in the next section, otherwise provided, whenever the genuineness or execution of any such instrument, received by telegraph, shall be denied, on oath, by the person sought to be charged thereby, it shall be incumbent upon the party claiming under, or alleging, the same, to prove the existence and execution of the original writing from which the telegraphic copy or duplicate was transmitted. The original message shall, in all cases, be preserved in the telegraph office from which the same is sent.

Sec. 15. Except as hereinbefore otherwise provided, any instrument in writing, duly certified, under his hand and official seal, by a notary public, commissioner of deeds, or clerk of a court of reeord, to be genuine, within the personal knowledge of such officer, may, together with such certificate, be sent by telegraph, and the telegraphic copy thereof shall, prima facie only, have the same force, effect, and validity, in all respects whatsoever, as the original, and the burden of proof shall vest with the party denying the genuineness or due execution of the original.

Sec. 16. Whenever any person or persons shall have been indicted or accused, on oath, of any public offense, or thereof convicted, and a warrant of arrest shall have been issued, the magistrate issuing such warrant, or any justice of the supreme court, or judge of a district or county court, may indorse thereon, an order, signed by him, and authorizing the service thereof, by telegraph, and thereupon such warrant and order may be sent by telegraph to any marshal, sheriff, constable, or policeman, and, on the receipt of the telegraphic copy thereof by any such officer, he shall have the same

authority, and be under the same obligation to arrest, take into custody, and detain, the said person or persons, as if the said original warrant of arrest, with the proper direction for its service duly indorsed thereon, had been placed in his hands; and the said telegraphic copy shall be entitled to full faith and credit, and have the same force and effect, in all courts and places, as the original. But, prior to indictment or conviction, no such order shall be made by any officer, unless, in his judgment, there is probable cause to believe the said accused person or persons guilty of the offense charged; provided the making of such order by any officer, as aforesaid shall be prima facie evidence of the regularity thereof, and of all proceedings prior thereto. The original warrant and order, or a copy thereof, certified by the officer making the order, shall be preserved in the telegraph office from which the same is sent, and, in telegraphing the same, the original, or the said certified copy, may be used.

Sec. 17. Any writ or order, in any civil suit or proceeding, and all other papers requiring service, may be transmitted by telegraph for service in any place, and the telegraphic copy of such writ, or order, or paper, so transmitted, may be served or executed by the officer or person to whom it is sent for that purpose, and returned by him, if any return be requisite, in the same manner, and with the same force and effect in all respects, as the original thereof might be if delivered to him, and the officer or person serving or executing the same, shall have the same authority, and be subject to the same liabilities, as if the said copy were the original. The original, when a writ or order, shall also be filed in the court from which it was issued, and a certified copy thereof shall be preserved in the telegraph office from which it was sent. In sending it, either the original or the certified copy may be used by the operator for that purpose.

Sec. 18. Whenever any document to be sent by telegraph bears a seal, either private or official, it shall not be necessary for the operator in sending the same to telegraph a description of the seal, or any words or device thereon, but the same may be expressed in the telegraphic copy by the letters "L. S." or by the word "Seal'; and whenever any such document bears a revenue stamp, it shall be sufficient to express the same in the telegraphic copy by the word "Stamp, stating the amount thereof, without any other or further description thereof. [Amendment, approved March 24, 1864; Stats. 1863-64, 232.]

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Sec. 19. The president or secretary of any telegraphic company in this state may file, in the office of the clerk of the county court of the county in which the principal office of said county is situated, a copy of any printed blank or envelope, picture or device, used, or intended to be, by said company, with his certificate that the same is commonly used, or is intended so to be, in the business of said company as a distinguishing mark, notice, or index, of said business, and thereupon such blank, envelope, picture, or device, shall become the property of said company, and it shall not be lawful for any person, unless by the employment or permission of said company, to print, publish, distribute, or use, or cause to be printed, published, distributed, or used, either of them, or any copy, counterfeit, or imitation thereof. Any person willfully offending against the provisions of this section, may be punished by a fine, not to exceed five hundred dollars, or imprisonment, not to exceed six months. Sec. 20. It shall be the duty of any telegraph company doing business in this state, to transmit all dispatches in the order in

which they are received, under the penalty of one hundred dollars, to be recovered, with costs of suit, by the person or persons whose dispatch is postponed out of its order; provided, that communications to and from public officers, on official business, may have precedence over all other communications; and, provided, also, that intelligence of general and public interest may be transmitted, for publication, out of its order.

Sec. 21. The term "telegraphic copy," or "telegraphic duplicate," wherever used in this act, shall be construed to mean any copy of a message, made or prepared for delivery, at the office to which said message may have been sent by telegraph.

Sec. 22. Nothing herein contained shall be construed in any manner to take away, lessen, or limit, the liabilities of any telegraph companies doing business in this state.

Sec. 23. An act concerning telegraphic messages, and to secure secrecy and fidelity in the transmission thereof, approved May fourteenth, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, is hereby repealed. Sec. 24. This act shall take effect immediately.

An act to amend an act concerning corporations, passed April twentysecond, eighteen hundred and fifty.

[Approved April 4, 1861; Stats. 1861, p. 84.]

[Sections 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 contain the amendments to sections 146, 147, 148, 149, and 154 of the act of 1850, therein inserted.] Sec. 6. Any telegraph company may, at any time, with the consent of the persons holding two-thirds of the issued stock of said company sell, lease, assign, transfer, and convey, any rights, privileges, franchises, and property of said company, except its corporate franchise.

Sec. 7. This act shall take effect immediately, and its provisions shall apply as well to telegraph companies already formed as to those hereafter to be formed.

ARTICLE XIV.

BRIDGE COMPANIES.

An act concerning corporations.

[Passed April 22, 1850; Stats. 1850, p. 370.]

CHAPTER VII.

Section 156. Any number of persons, not less than five, may be formed into a corporation for the purpose of constructing and owning a bridge across any stream of water, as hereafter provided, upon complying with the following requirements:

First-They shall severally subscribe articles of association, in which shall be set forth the name of the corporation, the number of years the same is to continue (which shall not exceed fifty years), the amount of the capital stock of the corporation (which shall be divided into shares of one hundred dollars each), the number of directors and their names, who shall manage the concerns of the cor

poration for the first year and until others are elected, the location of such bridge, and the plan thereof.

Second-Each subscriber to such articles of association shall subscribe thereto his name and place of residence, and the number of shares of stock taken by him in such corporation.

Third-Whenever one-fourth part of the amount of the capital stock specified in the articles of association shall have been subscribed, and on complying with the provisions of the next section, such articles may be filed in the office of the clerk of the county or counties in which the bridge is built; and thereupon the persons who have subscribed the articles of association as aforesaid, and such other persons as shall become stockholders in such company, and their successors, shall be a body corporate, by the name specified in such articles of association.

Sec. 157. Such articles of association shall not be filed as aforesaid until ten per cent on one-fourth the amount of the stock of such company, fixed as aforesaid, shall have been actually paid in, in good faith, to the directors named in such articles of association, in cash; nor until there shall be indorsed thereon, or annexed thereto, an affidavit made by at least three of the directors named in such articles of association, that the amount of stock required by the one hundred and fifty-sixth section of this chapter to be subscribed, has been subscribed, and that ten per cent on the amount has been actually paid in as aforesaid.

Sec. 158. A copy of such articles of association, filed in pursuance of this chapter, with a copy of such affidavit indorsed thereon or annexed thereto, and certified to be a copy by the proper officer, shall in all courts and places be presumptive evidence of the facts therein contained.

Sec. 159. The business and property of every such corporation shall be managed and conducted by a board of directors, consisting of not less than five nor more than nine who shall be chosen, except those for the first year, at such place within a county in which the bridge of such corporation, or some part thereof, shall be located, as shall be prescribed by the laws thereof. The directors shall give notice of every such election previous to the holding thereof by publishing the same once in each week for four successive weeks in a public newspaper published in each county in which such bridge, or any part thereof, shall be located; and if, in any such county, no paper shall be published, such notice shall be published in some county adjoining the last-mentioned county. All elections of directors shall be by ballot, and by a majority of all votes given thereat; and every stockholder, being a citizen of the United States, and attending in person or by proxy, shall be entitled to one vote for each share of stock which he shall have owned absolutely, or as executor, administrator, or guardian, for thirty days previous to such election. No person shall be a director, unless he shall be a stockholder, owning at least four shares of stock absolutely in his own right, or as executor, administrator, or guardian, and entitled to vote at the election at which he shall be chosen, nor unless he shall be a citizen of this state; and a majority of the directors shall, at the time of their election, be residents of the county or counties in which such bridge shall be located. Whenever any vacancy shall happen in the board of directors it shall be supplied until the next election by the remaining directors. The directors of every such company shall be elected in the same month, in each and every year; and such election after the first shall be held on the first Tuesday of such month; and the directors chosen at any

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