JAS. BLACK GROOME, ESQUIRE, GOVERNOR. 551

CHAPTER 376.
AN ACT to prevent the concealment, defacement
or erasure of the names of owners from peach or
other fruit baskets, boxes or crates.
WHEREAS, the practice of concealing, defacing and
erasing the names of owners from peach and other	Preamble.
fruit baskets, boxes or crates, and substituting other
names in their place, has grown to be a great annoy-
ance, and cause of loss of property to their owners ;
and —
WHEREAS, such practices should justly subject
their perpetrators to severe punishment ; therefore —	Preamble.
SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of
Maryland, That the concealment, defacement or
erasure of the owner's name, by any mode whatever,	Concealment,
without his consent, from any peach or other fruit	defacement or
basket, box or crate, shall be deemed a misdemeanor,	erasure
and on conviction before a justice of the peace in. the
county or the City of Baltimore, where the offence
was committed, the party offending shall be required
to make restitution to the owner of the basket, box
or crate, in a sum equal to ten times its original cost,
and shall be fined not less than ten nor more than
thirty dollars for every concealment, defacement or	Penalty for
erasure of the name of the owner from every peach
or other fruit basket, box or crate ; one-half of said
fine to be paid to the informer, and the other half to
the County Commissioners, or to the Commissioners
of the Appeal Tax Court of the City of Baltimore,
to be applied to the ordinary expenses of the county
or city, as the case may be.
SEC. 3. And be it enacted, That any party who
shall wilfully destroy any peach or other fruit basket,
box or crate, either by splitting it up or burning it, or any part of it, shall, on conviction thereof before	Wilfully de- stroy
a justice of the peace of the couuty or the City of
Baltimore, wherever the offence was committed, be
subject to all the penalties imposed in the imme-
diately preceding section.
SEC. 4. And be it enacted, That this act shall take	In force.
effect from the day of its passage.
Approved April 11th, 1874.