No telegraph or telephone wire shall be erected or maintained within fifty yards of any public road or highway in this State unless it shall be so constructed, erected and maintained and provided with sufficient lightning guards and arresters as may be necessary for the protection of persons and property. Any person erecting or maintaining any such wire in violation of the provisions hereof shall forfeit and pay as a penalty therefor five dollars a day for each day such default continues after he shall have been given thirty days’ written notice specifying the fault or defect in the manner of erection, construction or maintenance thereof, to be recovered at the suit of any citizen of any county in which such violation occurs. The sum so recovered, after paying therefrom all the expenses incurred in the prosecution of such suit, shall be paid into the county treasury for ordinary county purposes.