Chap. 686.—An ACT to punish the illicit traffic in intoxicating liquors in the
counties of Wythe, Carroll and Grayson.

Approved March 8, 1896.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That if any
justice of the peace or police justice of the counties of Wythe, Carroll
and Grayson has reason to believe that any person or persons in
their respective counties are engaged in the traffic and sale of wines,
ardent spirits, malt liquors, or mixtures thereof, by wholesale or
retail, without first having obtained a state license authorizing him
or them to engage in the sale of such liquors, or mixtures; or if any
person make complaint before such justice, and an affidavit in writ-
ing stating that he has reason to believe that any person or persons,
naming them, are so engaged in the illicit dealing and traffic of
such liquors within the jurisdiction of the county courts of the
several counties aforesaid, giving the name and places where such
liquor is sold, in either case the justice shall issue his warrant
directed to the sheriff or any constable of his county, commanding
him to arrest and bring before him, or some other justice of the
peace or police justice, the suspected person or persons, to be heard
for the offence. The justice shall endorse upon the warrant the
names of such witnesses as he wishes to examine, or that may be
furnished him by the person making the complaint. And the sheriff
or constable to whom the warrant is directed shall have power to
enter any dwelling or out-house in which he has reason to believe
such liquors or mixtures are kept; and it shall be his duty to sum-
mon any other witnesses whom he has reason to believe have any
knowledge of the violation of the law, to attend at the hearing and
testify before the justice; and it shall be his further duty to inform
the justice what he believes these witnesses know. If the justice
hearing the case is of opinion that there is probable cause to believe
the accused guilty, he shall commit him to the jail of the county to
answer an indictment in the county court; or he may admit him, in
his discretion, to bail, in a sum of not less than one hundred dol-
lars for each offence, and shall require him to furnish two good
sureties as his bail, whom the justice shall require to state upon
oath that they are severally worth at least the sum of two hundred
dollars after the payment of all their debts and obligations on which
they are bound jointly with others; and the justice shall endorse
upon the warrant the names of the sureties, and that this oath was
made before him. The justice shall recognize all the witnesses
before him to appear at the next term of the county court of his
county.

2. All pexeons, principals, agents and servants, in any way con-
nected with such illicit traffic of liquors, or mixtures thereof, all
persons who procure the sale of such liquors or mixtures, shall be
deemed violators of the law, and be subject to the punishment pre-
scribed by the general law. It shall not be necessary to secure a
conviction of the accused to have a witness to testify to some spe-
cific sale or overt act in violation of the law, but the conviction may
be made upon the general reputation of the person accused as a
violator of the law prohibiting the traffic in liquors, or upon the
general reputation that the place where such traffic was carried on
is a place where such illicit traffic is engaged in.

3. This act shall be in force from its passage.