ART. 23] TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE COMPANIES. 693

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 com-
pany 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.

See sections 29 and 455.

1904, art. 23, sec. 328. 1888, art. 23, sec. 228. 1868, ch. 471, sec. 133.

363. 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 estab-
lished 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.

Telegraph and telephone companies are engaged in a public service and
must perform their duties impartially and without discrimination, subject
to reasonable rules and regulations. They cannot be exonerated from the
performance of this duty by any conditions or restrictions imposed by a
contract with the owner of the invention applied in the exercise of the
employment. The legislature has full power to regulate and control such
companies within reasonable limits. Mandamus properly Issued. Chesapeake,
etc., Telephone Co. v. Baltimore, etc., Telegraph Co., 66 Md. 410.

Where a company had adopted rules and regulations as it was authorized
to do by article 26, section 117, of the code of 1860, a person dealing with it
was bound to know that the engagements of the company were controlled by
such rules and regulations, and hence, they were engrafted into the contract.
Those dealing with the company must be supposed to know its rules and
regulations. What a company's rules and regulations can not protect it
against U. S. Telegraph Co. v. Gildersleeve, 29 Md. 247; Birney v. New
York, etc., Telegraph Co., 18 Md. 356.
See sec. 455.

Ibid. sec. 329. 1888, art. 23, sec. 229. 1868, ch. 471, sec. 134.

364. 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 imprison-
ment 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. 330. 1888, art. 23, sec. 230. 1868, ch. 471, sec. 135.

365. Any person connected with any such corporation in this State,
either as clerk, operator messenger, or in any other capacity, who shall