784 ARTICLE 23.

sending or desiring to send such despatch; provided, however, that arrange-
ments 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 art. 26, sec. 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 com-
pany's rules and regulations cannot protect it against. U. S. Telegraph Co. v.
Gildersleeve, 29 Md. 247; Birney v. New York, etc., Telegraph Co, 18 Md. 356;
Greer v. Western Union Tel. Co, 143 Md. 675.

Limitation of liability of telegraph company to defaults on its own line, upheld;
judgment for defendant in action for non-delivery of money sent by telegraph,
affirmed. Greer v. Western Union Tel Co, 143 Md. 675.

See sec. 401.

An. Code, sec. 364. 1904, sec. 329. 1888, sec. 229. 1868, ch. 471, sec. 134.

300. 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 con-
viction thereof, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and be punished by a
fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment 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.

An. Code, sec. 365. 1904, sec. 330. 1888, sec. 230. 1868, ch. 471, sec. 135.

301. Any person connected with any such corporation in this State,
either as clerk, operator messenger, or in any other capacity, who shall
wilfully divulge the contents or the nature of the contents of any private
communication entrusted to him for transmission or delivery, or who shall
wilfully refuse or neglect to transmit or deliver the same shall, on convic-
tion before any court, be adjudged guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall suffer
imprisonment in the jail in the county or city where such conviction shall
be had, for a term of not more than three months, or shall be fined not ex-
ceeding five hundred dollars, in the discretion of the court.

An. Code, sec. 366. 1904, sec. 331. 1888, sec. 231. 1868, ch. 471, sec. 136.

302. If the wires or cords of any telegraph line be located or stretched,
or extended from one post or pole to another in such manner as to prevent
the owner of any timber growing along the line of such telegraph corpora-
tion from cutting and felling the same, and the owner thereof in cutting or
felling such timber shall injure the wires, cords or posts of such telegraph
line, he shall not be liable to an action for damages, unless it shall appear
that in such cutting and felling, or in having the same cut or felled, the said
owner wilfully and intentionally injured such wires, cords and posts.
See notes to sec. 293.