Chap. 528.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 3, 4 and 10 of an act entitled
‘An act to incorporate the Virginia and northwestern railroad company,”
approved February 26, 1896,

Approved February 28, 1498.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sections
three, four and ten of an act entitled ‘‘An act to incorporate the Virginia
and northwestern railroad company,’’ approved February twenty-sixth,
eighteen hundred and ninety-six, be amended and re-enacted so as to
read as follows :

§ 3. In order to secure a continuous line of railroad, to be operated
under one management without change of cars or break of bulk, said
company may acquire the franchises, rights, privileges and property of
other railroad companies connecting with its line in this and other states,
or which may hereafter be chartered by purchase, lease or otherwise,
and it may sell or lease its road, property and franchises to any such
company or companies, and it may merge, and for the purpose aforesaid,
562 ACTS OF ASSEMBLY.

consolidate the same, or any of them, with the said Virginia and north-
western railroad company on such terms as may be agreed upon by the
contracting parties, and may change its name, or may adopt another
name, for the consolidated company, full power and authority being
hereby given such other companies to make and carry out such consoli-
dation and merger. Said company is authorized to lease, purchase and
own steamboats, barges and other water crafts propelled by steam or
other motive power, and the securities of other corporations owning the
same to be operated in connection with its line of railroad for the trans-
portation of freight and passengers.

§ 4. Said company or its successors may from time to time issue and
sell its bonds to an amount not to exceed forty thousand dollars per
mile of its main line of single track, sidings and branches upon such
terms and at such prices as its board of directors may direct, and may
secure the same by mortgages or deeds of trust upon its franchises and
property, or any part thereof.

§ 10. The capital of said company shall be three hundred thousand
dollars. For the purpose of organizing said company the persons first
named in this act shall constitute its first board of directors, and shall
serve until its first meeting of stockholders, and three or more may act
and may receive subscriptions to the capital stock at any time and place,
and when the sum of fifty thousand dollars is subscribed they shall con-
vene the stockholders and organize said company. At said meeting one
of their number shall preside, and they shall certify said organization
on the books of the company, and their certificate, or a copy thereof,
duly authenticated by a notary public, shall be received as evidence of
the legal organization of said company. Said company or its successors
shall begin the work of constructing its railroad within two years from
the first day of July, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, and shall com-
plete its main line in this state within five years from the beginning of
construction.

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