CHaP. 506.—An ACT to incorporate the atid City street railway
company.

Approved March 4, 1800.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia,
That A. C. Braxton, J. M. Quarles, Samuel Forrer, J. N.
McFarland, Arista Hoge, Charles A. Holt, W. S. Gooch,
J. E. Sanger, M. A. Booker, James Bumgarner, junior, and
G. G. Gooch, or such of them as may accept the provisions
of this act, and their associates and successors, be, and they
are hereby, constituted a body politic and corporate by the
name and style of the Basic City street railway company.

2. The said company shal! have power and authority to
construct, equip, maintain, and operate a street railway or
railways along the streets of any municipal corporation in
the county of Augusta now existing or which may hereafter
be created, and also along any public road or roads in said
county, and also over any private lands in said county or
in any of said municipal corporations: provided, that said
company shall always obtain the consent of the local
authorities having charge of any street, road, or land upon
which it proposes to construct its railway or railways be-
fore it shall have authority to occupy any part of such
street, road, or land with its railway or railways; such
local authorities may prescribe any terms they deem best
(not contrary to law) as a condition precedent to granting
their consent as aforesaid, such consent, when granted,
together with the terms and conditions upon which it was
granted, shall be recorded in the deed books of Augusta
county court, and such record alone, unless lost or
destroyed, shall be evidence of such consent and the terms
and conditions thereof. The local authorities, within the
meaning of this section, shall be the council of any muni-
cipal corporation as regards the public streets thereof, the
board of supervisors of Angusta county as regards the
public roads of said county, and the owner or owners of
the fee simple as regards any private lands. The board
of directors of any private corporation owning such fee
shall have authority, unless otherwise provided by the
stockholders, to give consent for such corporation by a
majority vote of a quorum of such board.

3. It shall be lawful for such company to transport pas-
sengers, freight, and baggage over the line of its railway
or railways, and to collect fare and tolls for same; and it
may use horse, mule, steam, electric, or cable power to pro-
pel the cars upon its road.

4. The capital] stock of said company shall be not less
than five thousand dollars, nor more than fifty thousand
dollars, to be divided into shares of the par value of fifty
dollars each.

5. The said company may acquire, own, hold, and dis-
pose of property, real, personal, or mixed, necessary or
profitable for it in the carrying on the business for which
it is chartered, and which may be acquired by it in the
course of its business.

6. The said company shall have power and authority to
lease its said road or roads, to borrow money for the uses
of the corporation, and to secure such loans by deed of
trust or mortgage on all or part of its estate, franchises, or
income, and to make and adopt such rules, regulations,
and by-laws as may be necessary or expedient for the suc-
cessful operation of said company; and generally to do
any and all acts expedient and necessary for the practical
working and maintaining of said company: provided, the
same shall not conflict with the laws of this state or of
the United States, or the terms accepted by the company,
in order to obtain the consent of any local authority to
the building of its road, as required in section two of
this act.

7. The corporators herein named, or such of them as
may accept the provisions of this act (being not less than
five), shall constitute the board of directors of said com-
pany up to March first, eighteen hundred and ninety-two,
and until their successors shall have been elected, during
which time they shall have authority to increase their
number, to fill vacancies occurring on said board, to elect
all necessary and desirable officers of said company, to
prescribe their duties and fix their salaries, notwithstand-
ing such officers may be members of said board; to adopt
by-laws, rules, and regulations, as prescribed in section
six of this act; to do all things necessary or expedient to
carry out the purposes and objects of this charter, and
successfully to conduct the company’s business, and gene-
rally to do anything that the stockholders in meeting could
do. There shall be a general meeting of the stockholders
of said company on or before March first, eighteen hun-
dred and ninety-two, of which notice shall be given by
publication for thirty days in one of the Staunton news-
papers, and at which meeting the stockholders shal! elect
a board of directors and prescribe and limit their powers,
as the stockholders may deem beat, fix their compensation,
make any additions to or amendments of the by-laws they
may desire, and to do any other matters proper to be done
by a stockholders’ meeting.

8. The said company shall have authority to consoli-
date with and to operate with any other railway company
doing business under the laws of this state: provided,
that such consolidation oe authorized by the favorable
votes of the holders of at least three-fourths of the capi-
tal stock of the company hereby incorporated.

9. Whenever any three corporators herein mentioned
shall desire to organize said company under this charter.
they shall notify in writing each of the other corporators
of the time and place (the latter to be in the city of
Staunton) proposed for effecting such organization. Each
corporator shal! be entitled to at least ten days’ notice of
such organization. At such organization each corporator
herein named shall, if he accept the terms of this act, be
entitled to subscribe or cause to be subscribed an equal
amount of the capital stock with the other corporators,
but should any corporator fail to subscribe or cause to be
subscribed his full share of stock, the residue of his pro-
portion shall be divided among the remaining corporators
accepting this charter, as they may agree: provided, that
no stock shall be subscribed at the organization by any
person not named herein as a corporator without the
unanimous consent of the corporators accepting this char-
ter. Should any corporator herein named fail to appear
at the organization meeting, in person or by proxy, and
subscribe at least one share of said stock in said com-
pany, after receiving notice as aforesaid, he shall be con-
sidered as declining to accept this charter.
10. The company hereby chartered shall be organized,
and shall by itself, its lessee, or assignee, operate at least
a quarter of a mile of railway before March first, eighteen
hundred and ninety-two, or else this charter shall be void
and of no effect.

11. The first general meeting of stockholders of said
company after the organization shall be held in the city
of Staunton, and the stockholders may then fix the times
and places for future meetings.

12. All taxes falling due by said company to the com-
monwealth of Virginia shall be paid in money and not in
coupons. The legislature reserves the right to amend,
alter, or repeal this act at its pleasure. —

13. This act is to be in force from its passage.