658 CORPORATIONS. [ART. 23

1900, ch. 217, sec. 193 A.

282. It shall be lawful for any railroad company heretofore
or hereafter incorporated under the laws of this State to acquire,
own and hold, pledge, sell or otherwise dispose of, and to
endorse, guarantee or assume the stocks, bonds and other
securities of other railroad companies of this or any other
State, and of any inland, coast or ocean transportation com-
pany or companies.

1888, art. 23, sec. 194. 1886, ch 294, sec. 1.

283. Whenever the several railroads of this State, operated
by steam, shall cross any public highway at grade outside the
corporate limits of cities, and any such highway shall be
believed to be of such a character as to render the passage of
locomotives and trains thereon dangerous to life and property,
it shall be the duty of the commissioners of the county in
which such point of crossing shall be located, to notify the
company owning or operating the railroad at such point, by
serving a written notice on the superintendent or other agent
of such railroad company in said county, that the said county
commissioners will, thirty days thereafter, consider the neces-
sity of further protection against danger at said crossing; and
if, after the expiration of said thirty days said county commis-
sioners, or a majority of them, shall determine that such pro-
tection is necessary, they shall notify said railroad company
through its superintendent or ticket agent in said county, that
within sixty days thereafter, said railroad company shall either
place a flagman at said crossing, whose duty it shall be to
give timely notice to all persons using said crossing, of the
approach of all locomotives or trains, or a system of electric
alarm bells, to give such notice at the approach of trains, or
shall erect safety-gates at said crossing, which shall be closed
not less than one-half minute before the passage and during
the passage of every railroad train or locomotive across said
highway; or shall change the said grade crossing so as to pass
said highway with an under or over grade crossing, in which
case neither a flagman nor safety-gate shall be required.
N. C. R Co. v Medairy, 86 Md 175.

Ibid sec. 195. 1886, ch. 294, sec. 2.

284. If any railroad company shall neglect or refuse to
comply with the requirements of the said county commission-
ers, as provided for by section 283, said railroad company