370 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [CH. 200

week for two successive weeks in two newspapers published in
Montgomery County, Maryland, and by such other advertise-
ment as said Board shall think proper, that it will be in readi-
ness at the time and place named in said advertisement within
fifteen days after the final publication thereof in said news
papers to receive sealed bids for the bonds, including the
amount thereof, described in said advertisement, under such
regulations as said Board of County Commissioners may by
its order prescribe. Said Board of County Commissioners
may, at its discretion, fix the interest rate to be paid on said
bonds or the bidders for said bonds may be requested in said
advertisement to name the interest rate upon which their
bids are based. If said Board of County Commissioners shall
determine to adopt the latter procedure then said advertise-
ment shall state that the bonds will be awarded to the bidder
offering to pay the lowest rate of interest in any legally ac-
ceptable bid, the lowest rate of interest to be determined on
the basis of the lowest interest cost to the county of the
bonds so offered from their date of issue to the last date of
maturity of any of said bonds, said interest rate to be a multi-
ple of one-fourth of one per cent (14 of 1%) but not exceed-
ing six per cent (6%) per annum. Upon the day mentioned
in said advertisement for opening the bids for said, bonds
as described therein, said Board of County Commissioners
shall receive the bids tendered for the purchase of said bonds
and on opening said bids in public the bonds so bid for shall
be awarded by said Board of County Commissioners to the
highest responsible bidder or bidders therefor for cash, if the
prices bid are adequate, in the judgment of said Board of
County Commissioners, and when two or more bidders have
made the same bid and such bid is the highest one for the
whole amount of the bonds so offered for sale or, taken to-
gether, are in excess of said whole amount, such bonds shall
then be awarded to such highest responsible bidders bidding
the same price in a ratable proportion; and if any of said
bonds so offered for sale at any time are not bid for, or if an
insufficient price is bid for them, they may be subsequently
disposed of under the direction of said Board of County Com-
missioners at a private sale upon the best terms that can be
obtained for the same at not less than the par value thereof,
as said Board of County Commissioners may determine. Noth-
ing herein contained shall be construed as preventing the pri-
vate sale of said bonds, without first offering the same at
public sale, and said Board of County Commissioners are
hereby expressly authorized and empowered to issue and sell
all or any part of said bonds at any time and from time to
time, either at public or private sale, at not less than the par
value thereof, as said Board of County Commissioners may, in