Every person or corporation engaged wholly or in part in the business of a common carrier or warehouse operator, and every officer, agent or employee thereof, who shall issue any bill of lading, receipt or other voucher by which it shall appear that any goods, wares or merchandise have been received by such carrier or warehouse operator, unless the same have been so received and shall be at the time actually under his or her control, or who shall issue any bill of lading, receipt or voucher containing any false statement concerning any material matter, shall be guilty of a gross misdemeanor. But no person shall be convicted under this section for the reason that the contents of any barrel, box, case, cask or other closed vessel or package mentioned in the bill of lading, receipt or voucher did not correspond with the description thereof in such instrument, if such description corresponds substantially with the mark on the outside of such barrel, box, case, cask, vessel or package, unless it appears that the defendant knew that such marks were untrue.