menced and prosecuted from any one or more points on its line where most convenient to receive its material and rolling stock, and may be prosecuted in opposite directions from such point or points at the same time.

SEC. 19. That said company shall neither sell, lease, or rent to, or consolidate with any competing, converging or parallel road or company, and a violation of this pro

vision shall work a forfeiture of its charter.

SEC. 20. That the lands to be acquired by said company under this charter shall be alienated in good faith, one-fourth in six years, one-fourth in ten years, one-fourth in twelve years, and one-fourth in sixteen years, from the date of the certificates. They shall not be alienated to any other corporation, except so far as may be necessary for right of way, depots, and other legitimate and necessary uses; nor shall they be alienated directly or indirectly, in trust to any person, firm or company, for the use or benefit of the company hereby created, or for the use or benefit of this, or any other corporation, nor to any other corporation or firm, of which any officer or stockholder of this company is a member. And a violation of the provisions of this section shall work a forfeiture of this charter.

SEC. 21. That this act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.

Passed May 27th, 1873.

[NOTE. The foregoing act was presented to the Governor of Texas for his approval on the thirtieth day of May, A. D. 1873, and was not signed by him, or returned to the house in which it originated, with his objections thereto, within the time prescribed by the Constitution, and thereupon became a law without his signature.JAMES P. NEWCOMB, Secretary of State.]

CHAPTER CCX.

An Act to amend sections three, five and six, of an Act entitled "An Act to incorporate the Carthage Branch Railway Company," approved May 22d, 1871, and to grant Lands to said Company to aid in the construction of its Road.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas, That section three of the above recited act shall be so amended as hereafter to read as follows: SEC. 3. The said company is hereby invested with the right of locating, constructing, owning, operating and maintaining a continuous line of railway, with a single or double track, as well as a telegraph line, from Wascom's Station, in Harrison county, or from the city of Marshall, in Harrison county, as said company may elect; thence by the nearest practicable route to the town of Carthage, in Panola county; thence in a southwesterly direction to connect with any line of road that may be located or constructed through the county of Nacogdoches, in the main direction of north and south; provided, that freight and passenger depots shall be established within one-half mile of the court house in the city of Marshall, or within one-half mile of the business center of Wascom's Station, as said company may elect, and within one-half mile of the court house in the town of Carthage, upon condition that said towns respectively shall donate to said company the right of way along the line of its survey through said towns, and necessary depot grounds. That the company shall be invested with the right of constructing such sidings, turnouts, depots, station houses, machine shops, wells, water tanks, and other buildings and works, as are incident to the operation and construction of said road.

SEC. 2. That section five of said act shall be so amended as hereafter to read as follows: SEC. 5. The capital stock of said company shall not be greater than three millions of dollars, to be divided into shares of one hundred dollars each, each share to entitle the holder to one vote in each and every meeting of the stockholders of said company, and at each election by the same; and a majority of the stock shall govern, except in matters otherwise provided. The said shares of stock shall be

deemed personal property, and shall be transferable on the books of the company.

SEC. 3. That section six of said act to incorporate the Carthage Branch Railway Company shall be so amended as hereafter to read as follows: SEC. 6. This company shall complete at least twenty miles of its road by the first day of May, A. D. 1875, and twenty miles each year thereafter, or forfeit the right to the unfinished part of its route, and may commence work at such point as the said company may deem most practicable.

SEC. 4. That for the purpose of aiding in and securing the construction of the Carthage Branch Railway, there shall be and there is hereby granted, out of the unreserved vacant and unappropriated lands of the State of Texas, sixteen sections of land, of six hundred and forty acres each, for each mile of railroad which the said Carthage Branch Railway Company shall construct and put in good running order; provided, that the State shall in no case be liable for any deficiency of public domain.

SEC. 5. That whenever and as often as said Carthage Branch Railway Company shall complete and put in running order a section of ten miles or more of its road, as hereinbefore designated, said company shall give notice thereof to the Governor of the State, and it shall be his duty to appoint some skillful engineer, if there be no State engineer, to examine said completed road and make report thereon, under oath, to him; it shall then be his duty, if the same is shown to have been constructed in accordance with this charter and as required by law, to report the fact to the Commissioner of the General Land Office; thereupon it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of the General Land Office to issue to said company sixteen certificates, of six hundred and forty acres of land, for each and every mile of road so completed. That all land certificates that shall issue to said company under the provisions of this act shall be located and surveyed in alternate sections; that is to say, said company shall cause to be surveyed two sections, of six hundred and forty acres each, for each certificate, adjoining, and shall return to the General Land Office the field notes and maps of the same, and the Commissioner of the General Land Office shall thereupon number said sections so surveyed, and shall cause to be issued to said company, or its assignees, patents to the odd sections, the even sections being re

served to the State for the school fund; provided, that when fractions of land of a less size than twelve hundred and eighty acres, by reason of previous surveys, are found, the same may be located by virtue of said railroad certificates; and it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of the General Land Office to divide and designate the same equally, and to patent one-half thereof to the company or its assignees, and the residue of said certificates may in like manner be located elsewhere until the same is exhausted, the State being entitled to one-half of each survey, and the company to the other half.

SEC. 6. That said company shall alienate the lands hereby granted and donated, except so far as may be necessary for the ordinary uses and operating said road, as follows, viz.: one-fourth thereof in eight years; onefourth in twelve years; one-fourth in sixteen years, and the remaining one-fourth in twenty years from the date of the issuance of the certificates, in such manner that the whole of said lands shall pass out of the hands of. said company within twenty years after the date of the certificates; provided, that said lands shall not be alienated to any other corporation, except so far as may be necessary for the proper use and the conducting of the business of such corporation; nor to any person, firm, or association of persons in trust for themselves, or to any firm or company of which any officer or stockholder of said company is a member; and on failure to comply with the provisions of this section, and the general laws of the State on this subject, the said company shall forfeit all right to lands secured by this act, not alienated as required by law.

SEC. 7. That said company shall not sell, lease, nor rent its road-bed, or sell its franchise to any other parallel, converging or competing line of railroad in this State, or purchase or be merged in, or consolidated with any such parallel, converging or competing line or road; and a violation of the provisions of this section shall terminate its corporate existence and powers; and any such sale, lease, purchase, merger or consolidation shall be null and void; but the prohibitions herein contained shall not be so construed as to prevent any such corporation from leasing, renting or purchasing, or becoming the joint owner of such portion of any other road as may form a link in, or continuation of its line of road, so far

as such link or continuation may constitute one common and continuous line of road.

SEC. 8. That this act take effect and be in force from and after its passage, and all law[s] in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

Passed May 27th, 1873.

[NOTE. The foregoing act was presented to the Governor of Texas for his appproval on the twenty-eighth of May, A. D. 1873, and was not signed by him, or returned to the house in which it originated, with his objections thereto, within the time prescribed by the Constitution, and thereupon became a law without his signature.JAMES P. NEWCOMB, Secretary of State.]

CHAPTER CCXI.

An Act to incorporate the Clinton Bridge Company.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas, That B. M. Odom, R. B. Wofford, John T. Wofford, R. B. Hudson, S. C. Lackey and R. Kleburg, and such other parties as they may associate with them, are hereby constituted a body corporate and politic, under the name and style of the "Clinton Bridge Company;" and as such may sue and be sued; may have a corporate seal; and may hold and own such property, both real and personal, as may be necessary to carry out the objects of this charter.

SEC. 2. That it shall be the duty of said corporation to build a good, safe and suitable bridge, of wood or iron, across the Guadalupe river, at or near the town of Clinton, in De Witt county; said bridge to be completed within two years from and after the passage of this act.

SEC. 3. That it shall be the duty of said company to open and construct a roadway, with necessary culverts, in the approaches to said bridge from the highlands, as shall render transit safe and easy, and to keep the same in good repair.

SEC. 4. That when said bridge shall be completed,