1072 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [Ch. 688]

Every person who shall at any hotel, inn, boarding house
or livery stable receive or cause to be furnished any food or
accommodation for man or beast, and shall frandulently fail
to pay for the same, and every person who shall obtain credit
at any hotel, inn or boarding house by the use of any false
pretense or device, or by frandulently depositing at such hotel,
inn or boarding house any baggage or property of value less
than the amount of such credit or of the bill by such person
incurred; and every person who, after obtaining credit or
accommodation at any hotel, inn or boarding house shall
abscond or frandulently depart or remove his baggage there-
from without discharging the debt as aforesaid incurred, shall
be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall
be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars or
by imprisonment in jail for a term of not less than one month
nor more than six months, or by both such fine and imprison-
ment, in the discretion of the Court. And in determination
of any question arising under this section the fact that such
departure or removal was without the knowledge or consent
of the proprietor or manager of such hotel, inn or boarding
house or the representatives or agent of such proprietor or
manager, shall be treated as presumptive evidence that such
departure or removal was frandulent.

SEC. 2. And lie it further enacted, That nothing in this
act shall apply to or affect the prosecution of any offense
which may have been committed prior to the passage of this
act, or the punishment provided for such offense.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That this act shall take
effect from the date of its passage.

Approved April 8, 1912.

CHAPTER 688.

AN ACT levying a special paving tax upon property in Balti-
more City specially benefited by improved paving, the pro-
ceeds of said tax to go into or augment the new paving fund
provided by the Act of 1906, Chapter 401, and the Act of
1908, Chapter 202, and to be spent by the paving com-
mission provided for by said acts, and to authorize the
Appeal Tax Court and the City Collector to perform certain
duties relating to said special tax.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Mary-
land, That there is hereby levied and imposed upon property