662 CORPORATIONS. [ART. 23

provide at its own cost and expense that the said public high-
way shall be carried across its tracks either overhead by a
bridge or under said tracks by a tunnel, and in order to con-
struct such new crossing said railroad company is empowered
to exercise the powers of condemnation vested in it for the
purpose of acquiring such additional property and rights as it
may require to construct the same. The bridge which said
railroad company shall construct for an overhead crossing or
the tunnel for the undergrade crossing shall be at least twenty
feet wide, and the height of said tunnel from the surface of the
roadway through it shall not be less than fourteen feet; and
the grades approaching said overhead or undergrade crossings
shall not be greater than a rise of six feet in the hundred. The
said "tunnel" used in this section to describe the undergrade
crossing may either be arched or the railroad tracks may be
carried across the public highway on a bridge, as the railroad
company may elect. For constructing the approaches to said
overhead or undergrade crossings the railroad company may, at
its own expense, change the grade of the public highway to be
carried on said new crossing with the same rights and liabili-
ties as axe now vested in the county commissioners in changing
the grades of public highways. Whenever a railroad company
shall construct an overhead or undergrade crossing under the
terms of this section, all grade crossings within six hundred
yards of the same may be closed by it and no new crossing
shall be opened within that distance of said overhead or under-
grade crossing; provided, that this prohibition as to the main-
tenance and opening of grade crossings shall not apply to incor-
porated towns or villages of two thousand or more inhabitants,
subject, however, to the consent of the county commissioners
or municipal authorities of said counties and towns.

1890, ch. 443, secs. 1 and 2.

295. It shall not be lawful for any railroad company doing
business in this State to withhold any part of the wages of its
employes for the benefit of any relief association or the mem-
bers thereof. Any railroad company violating the provisions
of this section shall upon conviction be fined not less than fifty
($50) dollars, nor more than five hundred ($500) dollars for
each and every offense.

1894, ch. 269.

296. The board of public works may, when it is shown to
their satisfaction by any railroad company that it is impracti-