QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY. 4243

P. L. L., 1888, Art. 18, sec. 198. 1882, chs. 244 and 307.
293. Any person who shall have been engaged for four constinuous
months immediately before the first day of December, eighteen hundred
and eighty-two, in business as a pharmacist and druggist, shall be entitled

on and after said day to carry on such business under a new license similar
to the one under which he had been acting just prior to said day; pro-
vided, he shall first file a petition with and to the clerk of said court, set-
ting forth that he has been engaged for the time aforesaid in the business

of a pharmacist and druggist, and praying for the issuing to him of a phar-
macist and druggists' license; and the clerk shall forthwith issue to such
petitioner, upon his paying the usual charges therefor and a fee of twenty-
five cents to the clerk, a traders' license, and endorsed thereon, over his
official signature, the words "Pharmacist and Druggists' License"; but
if any other person shall desire to obtain from said clerk a license to con-
duct the business of a pharmacist and druggist, endorsed as aforesaid, after
the first day of December, eighteen hundred and eighty-two, he shall first
file with said clerk a petition addressed to one of the judges of the circuit

court for said county, setting forth in what district of said county he
proposes to engage in said business; that he is fitted by training and expe-
rience to conduct the same, and that he is not about engaging therein with
a view to evade the provisions of this subtitle of this article; which said
petition to the said judge shall be accompanied by a certificate, filed there-
with, of twenty-four freeholders of said district, that they are well .ac-
quainted with said petitioner, and that they know him to be well fitted by
training and experience to conduct such business, and that from their
knowledge of his character they are satisfied that he will not abuse his
license, if granted, to evade the provisions of this subtitle of this article;
and upon such petition and certificate being filed, the said clerk shall give
ten days' notice by two insertions in some newspaper published in said
county, of such petition, the cost of which notice, together with all fees
accrued under such petition, shall, before such publication, be paid by
said petitioner, and if within said ten days no objection shall be filed to
the issuing of such license, the said clerk shall at once issue the same,

endorsed as aforesaid, upon the petitioner paying the usual license charges
therefor; but if within the said ten days any objection is filed, either to
the fitness of such petitioner by experience and training, to conduct such
business, or to his character as a man fit to be trusted to conduct the same,
the clerk shall forthwith lodge all the papers in said case with the judge
to whom the petition is directed, or with some other judge of the circuit,
if he, the judge addressed, from any cause cannot act, who shall appoint
an early day for the hearing of the case, and shall direct the clerk to issue
subpoenas for such witnesses as either petitioner or objector may desire,
and shall hear and determine the case as to him shall seem right, and shall
award to the successful party such costs in the case as may have arisen
since the publication of the notice as aforesaid; and the clerk shall issue
or withhold license according to the order of the judge; every petition
filed under this section shall be verified by the oath of the petitioner taken