AN ACT RELATING TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF ACTIONS, TO JUDGMENTS AND DECREES FOR THE PAYMENT OF MONEY TO THE WIDOWS AND CHILDREN OF DECEDENTS, TO PARTITIONS IN THE COMMON PLEAS, RELATIVE TO PENALTIES ON TELEGRAPH OPERATORS, TO PLEADINGS IN CERTAIN ACTIONS OF DEBT, TO ACTIONS OF EJECTMENTS, TO THE PROTECTION OF FENCES, TO PARTNERSHIPS, TO LIMITATIONS OF WRITS OF ENTRY IN MANORS, LANDS, AND TENEMENTS, TO THE EXEMPTION LAWS, TO REPORTS OF THE SUPREME COURT, TO APPEALS RELATING TO WARDS, BOROUGHS, AND TOWNSHIP OFFICERS, TO THE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS OF DEEDS AND SEQUESTRATION OF LIFE ESTATES.

Approved 14th April, 1851. (P. L., 1851, page 614.)

SECTION 7. That from and after the passage of this act it shall not be lawful for any person connected with any line of telegraph within this Commonwealth, whether as superintendent, operator, or in any other capacity whatsoever, to use or cause to be used, or make known or cause to be made known, the contents of any despatch of whatsoever nature, which may be sent or received over any line of telegraph in this Commonwealth, without the consent or direction of either the party sending or receiving the same; and all despatches which may be filed at any office in this Commonwealth for transmission to any point shall be so transmitted without being made public, or their purport in any manner divulged at any intermediate point on any pretense whatever; and in all respects the same inviolable secrecy, safe keeping, and conveyance shall be maintained by the officers and agents employed upon the several telegraph lines of this Commonwealth in relation to all despatches which may be sent or received as is now enjoined by the laws of the United States in reference to the ordinary mail service: Provided, That nothing in this act contained shall be so construed as to prevent the publication, at any point, of any despatch of a public nature which may be sent by any person or persons with a view to general publicity.

AN ACT RELATING TO ELECTRICAL TELEGRAPHS AND MESSAGES SENT THEREBY.

Approved 8th May, 1855. (P. L., 1855, page 531.)

SECTION 2. That it shall be the duty of all owners, superintendents, and operators to preserve the originals of all messages sent from such office other than those intended for publication, for at least three years, and to produce the same in evidence whensoever duly subpoenaed to do so by the individual or individuals, or counsel of the individual or individuals sending or receiving a copy of such messages, in any court of justice, or before any committee of the legislature, and where the same shall be decided by such court or committee to be material to any issue or matter there to be tried or determined, under the like penalty as in other cases: Provided, That the confidential communications between attorney and client, so transmitted, shall in no case be divulged.

AN ACT TO CONSOLIDATE, REVISE, AND AMEND THE PENAL LAWS OF THIS COMMONWEALTH.

Approved 31st March, 1860. (P. L., 1860, pages 401 and 425.)

SECTION 72. If any superintendent, operator, or other person, who may be engaged in any telegraph line, shall use or cause to be used, or make known or cause to be made known, the contents of any dispatch, or any part thereof, sent from or received at any telegraph office in this Commonwealth, or in anywise unlawfully expose another's business or secret, or in anywise impair the value of any correspondence so sent or received, such person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, and to undergo an imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both, or either, at the discretion of the court.

SEC. 176. If any person, whether an operator in any telegraph office or otherwise, shall knowingly send or cause to be sent by telegraph any false or forged message as from such

office, or as from any other person, knowing the same to be false, forged, or counterfeited, with intent to deceive, injure, or defraud any individual or body corporate, such offender, on conviction, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, and undergo an imprisonment not exceeding one year.

AN ACT IN RELATION TO OPERATORS AND OTHERS IN THE EMPLOYMENT OF TELEGRAPH COMPANIES.

Approved 8th April, 1862. (P. L., 1862, page 325.)

SECTION I. That from and after the passage of this act, the operators, assistant operators, clerks, and other persons in the employ of the different telegraph companies in the State of Pennsylvania, while doing duty in the offices of said companies or along the routes of their telegraph lines, shall be exempt from militia duties and serving on juries, and from any fine or penalty for neglect thereof.

AN ACT REQUIRING TELEGRAPH COMPANIES TO MAKE YEARLY REPORT TO THE AUDITOR-GENERAL.

Approved 14th April, 1868. (P. L., 1868, page 96.)

SECTION I. That the provisions of the act, entitled "An act requiring railroad companies to make uniform reports to the auditor-general," approved April fourth, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, be and the same are hereby extended to all telegraph companies owning, leasing, or controlling lines in whole or in part within the limits of this Commonwealth.

(See note at the end of the act of April 9th, 1870, ante page 188.)

AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE INCOPORATION AND REGULATION OF CERTAIN CORPORATIONS.

Approved 29th April, 1874. (P. L., 1874, pages 92 and 104.)

SECTION 33. The charter for the incorporation of a company to maintain a telegraph line, shall, in addition to what is hereinbefore* required, also state :

I. The general route of the line of telegraph.

2. The points to be connected.

CLAUSE I. Such corporation shall be authorized, when incorporated as hereinbefore provided, to construct lines of telegraph along and upon any of the public roads, streets, lands, or highways, or across any of the waters within the limits of this State, by the erection of the necessary fixtures, including posts, piers, or abutments for sustaining the cords or wires of such lines, but the same shall not be so constructed as to incommode the public use of said roads, streets, or highways, or injuriously interrupt the navigation of said waters, and this act shall not be so construed as to authorize the construction of a bridge across any of the waters of this State.

CLAUSE 2. In all cases where the parties can not agree upon the amount of damages claimed, or by reason of the absence or legal incapacity of the owner or owners no such agreement can be made, for the right to enter upon lands or premises for the purposes named in this section, the company shall tender a bond, or have the same filed in the manner provided in the

* The act of April 29th, 1874, provides for the formation of certain classes of corporations, among which telegraph companies are included, by application to the governor after due advertisement made. The form of the certificate to be filed, the manner of advertising, and the general corporate powers of corporations so chartered, are set out in the act and its supplements. This act of April 29th, 1874, designated in the act of June 13th, 1883, as "the corporation act of 1874," has no connection with railroad companies except as to incline plane railways and traction motor companies. Railroad companies are formed under the provisions of the act of April 4th, 1868 (ante page 155), and its supplements, and as the act of April 29th, 1874, and its supplements form a considerable body of legislation, it has not been deemed advisable to include these acts in this work. Parties desiring information as to the incorporation and regulation of telegraph companies should consult Angelo T. Freedley's Digest of the act of April 29th, 1874, and supplements.

forty-first section* of this act, and proceedings shall be had as therein set forth.

CLAUSE 3. The said telegraphic corporation shall have the right to connect its lines of telegraph with any other line operating within this State; and it shall be the duty of any corporation or person owning any other telegraph line doing business within this State, to permit such connection, and to receive dispatches from and for other telegraph lines and corporations, and from and for any individual, and on payment of their usual charges to individuals for transmitting dispatches, as established by the rates and regulations of such telegraph line, to transmit the same with impartiality and good faith, under penalty of one hundred dollars for every neglect or refusal so to do, to be sued for as debts of like amount are by law recoverable, and 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 dispatch.

CLAUSE 4. No such telegraph company shall be consolidated with or merged in any other company owning a competing line of telegraph, nor shall the stock or bonds of any such telegraph company, to an amount sufficient to control the same, be held or owned by any company owning a competing line of telegraph, nor shall any company owning a competing line acquire, by purchase or otherwise, any other competing line of telegraph.

CLAUSE 5. That the charge by all telegraph companies organized under this act and those accepting the provisions thereof, for the transmission of any telegraphic dispatch, shall include the charge for the delivery thereof, and no extra or additional charge shall be made for such delivery.

SEC. 41. That in all cases in which, under the provisions of this act, any corporation is permitted to take waters streams, lands, property, materials, or franchises for the public purposes thereof, and the said corporation can not agree with the owner or owners of any such waters, streams, lands, materials, or franchises for the compensation proper for the damage done or likely to be done to or sustained by any such owner

* See below.