916 ARTICLE 23

whenever such consolidation as aforesaid is made, a certificate of the same
and of the particulars thereof shall be executed and acknowledged by the
president or other principal officers of said corporations so consolidating,
which said certificate shall be recorded in the clerk's office of the superior
court of Baltimore City, if the principal office of the said consolidated cor-
poration 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 company 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 secs. 33 and 412.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 299. 1912, sec. 363. 1904, sec. 328. 1888, sec. 228. 1868, ch. 471,

sec. 133.

300. 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 indi-
vidual, and shall transmit such despatches in the manner established 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 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 per-
form 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 company's rules and regula-
tions 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. 412.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 300. 1912, sec. 364. 1904, sec. 329. 1888, sec. 229. 1868, ch. 471,

sec. 134.

301. 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.