Chap. 480.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 69 of chapter 148 of the acts
of 1902-°3, entitled “an act to raise revenue for the support of the government
and publie free schools, and to pay the interest on the public debt, and to pro
vide a special tax for pensions as authorized by section 189 of the Constitution,
so as to permit foundrymen to exchange new castings for old ones, and to buy
old metals or old machines for use in their business, or to be renovated and sold.
without taking out a junk dealer's license.

Approved December 18, 1903.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
sixty-nine of chapter one hundred and forty-eight of the acts of nineteen
hundred and two-’three, entitled an act to raise revenue for the support of
the government and public free schools and to pay the interest on the
public debt, and to provide a specia] tax for pensions as authorized by
section one hundred and eighty-nine of the Constitution, be amended
and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 69. No keeper of a shop, for the purposes herein mentioned, or master
of a vessel, or other person shall, without a license authorized by law, pur-
chase, sell, barter, or exchange any kind of second-hand articles, junk,
rags, old metals, or other like commodities. The hustings or corporation
court of any city and the county or circuit court of any county, may grant
a license to any citizen of the United States who shall produce to it satis-
factory evidence of his good character to exercise or carry on the business
of a junk-dealer, which license shall designate the building in which said
person shall carry on said business; and no person shall exercise or carry
en the business of a junk-dealer without being duly licensed, nor in any
other building than the one designated in said license, except by the con-
sent of the court which granted the license, under the penalty of fifty
dollars for each day he shall exercise or carry on said business without
such license, or in any other building than the one so designated, except
by the consent of the court aforesaid. The place at which such business
may be conducted shall be kept open for the purchase or sale of any of
the articles mentioned aforesaid. Nor shall any purchase be made by
such person, or by any other person or persons for him, except between
the hours of sunrise and sunset, and such place of business shall be open
at all times to the inspection of any revenue or police officer of the county
or corporation wherein the license issued. Every person receiving such
license shall place over the principal entrance of his place of business a
sign designating that he is licensed as a junk-dealer. Nor shall any per-
son canvass for the purpose of buying any junk or other matters or things
for any such junk-dealer, or for gale to a junk dealer, without taking out
a license. Any person violating the provisions of this section shall pay a
fine of not. less than fifty dollars nor more than one hundred dollars for
each offense. Nothing contained in this section shall be construed or
operate to prevent any person, firm, or corporation keeping or operating a
foundry from exchanging his new castings for old ones, or from buying
any old metals or old machines for use in his business, or to be renovated
and sold, but nothing herein contained shall authorize any foundryman
to buy any old metals or old machines and sell them again in the same
condition as {hey were when purchased. Nothing in this section shall be
construed to prevent any regular licensed merchant in the country or im
towns having a population of two thousand or less from buying or
trading for rags, old iron, or other articles of junk, unless there be a regu-
lar licensed junk-dealer within three miles of his place of business; such
merchant to be subject at all times to the same conditions of inspections
as a regular junk-dealer. Every junk-dealer and every merchant and
foundryman who deals in junk, old metal, et cetera, shall keep at his
place of business a book in which shall be fairly written in English, at the
time of each transaction in the course of his business, an accurate account
of such transaction as to the purchase of rags, bones, old iron, and paper,
setting forth a description of the goods, article, or thing purchased ; the
time of receiving the same; the name and residence of the person selling
or delivering the same; the terms and conditions of purchase, or receipt
thereof, and all other facts and circumstances respecting such purchase,
or receipt, which said book or books shall at all times be subject to the
inspection of the judges of the criminal courts, the chief of police, the
captains and sergeants of the police of the city, town, or county wherein
said business is being conducted, or any or either of them, sergeant and
sheriff of such city, town, or county, or other officer with police jurisdic-
tion: provided, however, that this section shall not apply to articles
bought without the State of Virginia. It shall be the duty of every junk-
dealer, every such merchant and foundryman, to admit to his premises at
any time any officer mentioned above to examine any book or other record
on the premises, as well as the articles purchased or received, and to search
for and take into possession any article known by him to be missing or
known or believed by him to have been stolen, without the formality of
the writ of search warrant or any other process, which search or seizure
is hereby authorized. Every junk-dealer shall be liable to all the penal-
ties herein provided for violation of any of the provisions of this sec-
tion, whether such violation be committed by himself or by his agent,
clerk, or employee.