Chap. 372.—An ACT to amend the charter of the Winchester gas
company.

Approved May 2], 1887.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly, That sections
two, four, and five of an act passed March second, eighteen
hundred and fifty-three, entitled an act to incorporate the
Winchester gas company, be amended and re-enacted so as
to read as follows:

§2. That when two hundred shares have been subscribed,
the subscribers and their successors shall be a body politic
and corporate under the name and style of the Winchester
gas and electric light company, and shall have power to con-
struct suitable works for manufacturing and distributing gas
and electric light through said town, and to sell and dispose
of the same for public and private uses. The said company
shall have power to acquire and hold, for the purposes afore-
sald, real estate not exceeding three acres, and shall be in-
vested with all the powers conferred, and be subject to all
the provisions prescribed by the general laws of the State
applicable to incorporated companies.
§4. The said company is hereby authorized to open the
streets, lanes, alleys, and public squares of said town, for tho
purpose of distributing gas, and to erect poles and to string
wires thereon for the purpose of distributing electric light,
but it shall in both respects conduct such work in such man-
ner as may be prescribed by the council of said town.

§5. Any person who shall wilfully open a communication
with the street gas main or other gas pipe of said company,
without authority from the president and directors thereof,
or the superintendent acting under authority vested in him
by said president and directors, or who shall wilfully let on
the gas after it has been stopped by order of the same, or
who shall put up any pipes or burners in addition to the
pipes or burners originally put up and inspected, or intro-
duce gas into any of them without authority as aforesaid, or
shall be guilty of a like offence with regard to the poles and
wires used for the electric lights of said company, or shall
willfully do or cause to be done any acts whereby the works
of said company or any portion of its machinery or appara:
tus shall be obstructed, injured, or destroyed, such person
shall forfeit for each offence not less than ten dollars nor
more than thirty dollars, to be recovered before any justice,
one-half to the informer and the other half to the treasurer
of the said town, for its use; and shall moreover forfeit and
pay to the said company double the amount of damages sus-
tained by reason of such offence or injury, to be recovered
by action or motion in any court of record.

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