The telegraph manual: a complete history and description of the semaphoric, electric and magnetic telegraphs of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, ancient and modern.

750 BY-LAWS.
officers of this State, or of the United States, acting in the event of any
war, insurrection, riot, or resistance of public authority, or in the prevention or punishment of crime, or the arrest of persons charged or suspected thereof, to give to the communication of such officers immediate
dispatch; for the transmission of such communication, the company shall
not charge any higher price than for private communications of the same
length.
SEC. 7. The said company have power to sue for and recover damages
from any person or persons who may break or interrupt the working of
said line of telegraph. to the amount of the loss sustained by the nonworking of the line, and its cost of repair, and in addition, a fine of three
hundred dollars, as damages sustained by the company in the premises;
and if any person or persons shall refuse, or omit to pay said damages,
he, she or they shall be imprisoned in the county jail for a term not less
than six months, nor more than one year, as may be determined by the
court or jury by which the cause is tried.
SEC. 8. No person shall act as operator, to send forward and receive
any message or dispatch upon said line of telegraph, until he shall first
have taken an oath before some justice of the peace, that he will faithfully observe the secrecy of any dispatch so intrusted to him to forward
or receive, and that said dispatch, if private, shall be communicated in
the order of time in which it was received; provided, however, that in
cases of important public or general news, messages for the public papers
may take precedence of private messages, if, in the discretion of the operator, it is necessary.
SEC. 9. Any operator who shall be guilty of violating the provisions of
the foregoing sections, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and may
be punished by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or imprisonment
not exceeding one year, by any court in this State.
SEC. 10. This charter, and the rights under it, shall be subject to any
general laws which the State may at any time make, in regard to telegraph companies.
SEC. 11. This act shall take effect from its passage.
The oath required by the charter is not a general law
throughout the United States. A few of the legislatures have
enacted laws similar to section 8, but practically it is a nullity,
and useless.
BY-LAWS.
The by-laws adopted by the shareholders at their first
meeting, are in form as the following:1. The style and name of this company shall be the - Telegraph
Company, under an act of incorporation, passed by the legislature of -.
2. The annual meetings of this company shall be held in the city of
- on the second Thursday in October in each year.
3. The officers of this company shall be a president, secretary, and
eleven directors, to be elected by the stockholders, at each annual meeting.
4. The president shall be ex-officio a director, and preside at the meetings of the stockholders and board of directors, giving the casting vote in
case of ties. Ile shall have power to appoint and dismiss at will all operators. clerks, inspectors, and agents, of ever.y description, who are, or
shall be employed in operating, superintending or repairing the line. He