"Section 1. That if any steam or electric railway company, street railway company, interurban railway company or other chartered transportation company, express company, sleeping car company, telegraph or telephone company or person or association of persons operating the same or the receivers or lessees thereof or any officer, agent or employé of any such company in this state, shall knowingly haul or carry any person or property free of charge, or give or grant to any person, firm, association of persons, or corporation, a free pass, frank, a privilege or a substitute for pay or a subterfuge which is used or which is given to be used instead of the regular fare or rate for transportation, or any authority or permit whatsoever to travel or to pass or convey or transport any person or property free, or sell any transportation for anything except money or for any greater or less rate than is charged to all persons under the same conditions, over any railway or other transportation line or part of line in this state; or shall knowingly permit any person to transmit any message free in this state or shall give any frank or right or privilege to transmit messages free in this state, or property free of charge or for greater or less fare or rate than is charged other persons in this state for similar service; except such persons as are hereinafter exempted under the provisions of this act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction in any action brought on this account, and for that purpose, shall pay to the state of Texas the sum of five thousand dollars ($5,000.00) for each and every act which violates the provisions of this section; and any person, president, director, officer, employé or agent of any such corporation or association of persons who shall sell any transportation for anything except money or knowingly give, grant, issue or cause to be issued a free pass, a frank, a privilege or any substitute for or in lieu thereof for the transportation of any person, article or thing or the sending or transmitting any messages over wire or other means of transmitting messages in this state except to such persons as are hereinafter exempted from the provisions of this act
shall be deemed guilty of a felony under the laws of this state, and upon conviction for such act shall be punished by a fine of not less than five hundred dollars ($500.00) nor more than two thousand dollars ($2,000.00), and may in addition thereto, in the discretion of the jury, be imprisoned in the penitentiary for a term of not less than six (6) months nor more than two (2) years.
"Sec. 2. That the provisions of section 1 of this act shall not be held to prohibit any steam or electric interurban railway, telegraph company or chartered transportation company or sleeping car company or the receivers or lessees thereof or persons operating the same, or the officers, agents or employés thereof from granting free or exchanging free passes, franks, privileges, substitute for pay or other thing herein prohibited to the following persons: The actual bona fide employés of any such companies and the members of their families. The term employés shall be construed to embrace the following persons only: All persons actually employed and engaged in the service of any such companies, including its officers, bona fide ticket, passenger and freight agents, physicians, surgeons, and general attorneys, and attorneys who appear in courts to try cases and who receive a reasonable annual salary; furloughed, pensioned, and superannuated employés; persons who have become disabled or infirm in the service of any such common carrier, and the remains of a person killed in the employment of a carrier, and ex-employés traveling for the purpose of entering the service of any such common carrier. And the term families as used in this paragraph shall include the families of the persons named in this provision; also the families of persons killed while in the service of any such common carrier; also persons actually employed on sleeping cars, express cars, also officers and employés of telegraph and telephone companies, newsboys employed on trains, railway mail service employés and their families, post office inspectors, chairmen and bona fide members of grievance committees of employés, bona fide custom and immigration inspectors employed by the government, the state health officer, and one assistant, and federal health officers, county health officers, the state railroad commissioners, state superintendent of public buildings and grounds, the state game, fish and oyster commissioner and his two chief deputies; also government representatives accompanying from the Texas fish hatcheries shipments of fish for free distribution in the waters of this state; the dairy and food commissioner and two chief deputies; also when live stock, poultry, fruit, melons or other perishable produce is shipped, the necessary caretakers while en route and return; also trip passes to the indigent poor when application therefor is made by any religious or charitable organization; Sisters of Charity, or members of any religious society of like character; delegates to the different farmers' institutes and farmers' congresses and farmers' unions; also all delegates to the state and district firemen's conventions from volunteer fire companies and Confederate veterans who are or have been or who hereafter may be admitted to the Confederate Home; managers of Young Men's Christian Associations or other eleemosynary institutions while engaged in charitable work; also the officers or employés of industrial fairs during the continuance of any said fair and six months prior thereto; provided, that no more than four officers or employés of any one fair or fair associations shall receive passage in any one year; also persons injured in wrecks upon the road of any such company immediately after such injury, and the physicians and nurses attending such persons at the time thereof; also persons and property carried in cases of general epidemic, pestilence or other calamitous visitations at the time thereof or immediately thereafter; also the United States marshals and not more than two deputies of each such marshal; state rangers; constables; the members of the state militia in uniform and when called into service for the state; sheriffs and not more than two deputies to each constable or sheriff; chiefs of police or city marshals, whether elective or appointive. Any bona fide policeman or fireman in the service of any city or town in Texas may have the right to ride upon free transportation furnished by any steam railroad company, any street railway company, any interurban railway company, or other lines of public transportation, when such policeman or fireman is in the discharge of his public duty; but this provision shall not be construed so as to apply to men holding commissions as special policemen or firemen. Any other bona fide peace officer shall enjoy the same privilege, when their duties are to execute criminal processes; provided, that if any such railroad or transportation company shall grant to any sheriff a free pass over its lines of railroad, then it shall issue like free transportation to each and every sheriff in this state who may make to it written application therefor; and provided, further, that said sheriffs and other peace officers above mentioned using such free passes or transportation shall deduct the money value of the same, at the legal rate per mile, from any mileage accounts against the state, and litigants earned by them in executing process when such pass was used or could have been used; also members of the Live Stock Sanitary Commission or their inspectors, of Texas, not exceeding twenty-five (25) in number for any one year; any person who has by many years of actual labor aided, assisted and been instrumental in securing the passage of statutes by the Congress of the United States requiring the equipment of railroad trains with adequate safety appliances for the protection of the persons and lives of the employés and passengers; provided, that such person was not at such time a public officer, national, state or local, nor employed directly or indirectly by any railroad company; provided, that nothing in this act shall prevent any such companies, the receivers or lessees thereof and their families or the officers, agents or employés from granting to ministers of religion reduced rates of one-half (1/2) the regular fare, nor shall anything in this act prevent any such companies, their receivers or lessees from transporting free of charge any article being sent to any orphan home or other charitable institution; provided, further, that nothing in this act shall be construed to prohibit any such companies, their receivers or lessees or officers, agents or servants from making special rates for special occasions or under special conditions, but no such rate shall ever be made without first obtaining authority from the railroad commission of Texas; and provided further, that no persons who hold any...
