26 LAWS OF MARYLAND [CH. 8

of every description upon the streets and highways of said
town and to impose and demand a license from all players
or showmen exhibiting within said town, and to provide
for licensing theatres and to regulate and to restrain
theatrical or other public amusements within said town,
and to regulate and license auctioneers who cry any sales
on the public street;

To regulate and license the carrying on of any business
enterprise within the corporate limits of said town where
the regulation or the license of same is not prohibited by
laws. State or County, applying thereto.

649. Upon written petition signed by the majority in
interest of the owners of the majority of front feet of
property abutting on any street, lane or alley in the town of
Westernport of a distance not less than a block, The Mayor
and Commissioners of Westernport shall have power to
grade and pave all or any of the streets, lanes and alleys of
said town, which in their judgment the public convenience
may require to be graded or paved, and apportion the ex-
pense of the said improvements among the owners of lots
fronting on said street or improved portion thereof, so that
one-third of such expense shall be borne by the owner or
owners of each abutting lot on each side of said street, and
the remaining one-third of such expense shall be paid out
of the general corporate funds of said town; and all assess-
ments made by The Mayor and Commissioners of Western-
port for any of the purposes mentioned herein are hereby
made a lien upon the abutting property, equal in rank to
corporate taxes, and may be collected as taxes by The
Mayor and Commissioners of Westernport in the same
manner as the general corporate taxes of the said town
can be collected, provided that each such owner of property
may have the privilege of three years in which to make the
said payments with interest thereon at the rate of six per
cent. The time of each payment to be determined by The
Mayor and Commissioners of Westernport. And The
Mayor and Commissioners of Westernport may have any
street, alley or part thereof in said town regraded, repaved,
resurfaced or otherwise improved and levy the expense
thereof or any part thereof, not exceeding two-thirds on
the property binding on said road, street or alley agreeable
to the extent of such lots or frontage thereof, and collect
the same from such property owner, provided the right to
so regrade, repave or resurface or otherwise improve the
same shall only be exercised after the expiration of ten
years from the paving, grading or other improving of said