ACTS OF 1887.

CHAPTER 621.-Industrial statistics.

SECTION 1. The governor shall

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biennially

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* appoint some suitable person to be commissioner of industrial statistics who shall be ex officio superintendent of the census of the state and shall ** collect, arrange, tabulate and publish in a report by him to be made to the general assembly annually in January, the facts and statistical details in relation to the condi ion of labor and business in all mechanical, manufacturing, commercial and other industrial business of the state, and especially in relation to the social, educational and sanitary condition of the laboring classes, with such suggestions as he may deem to be proper for the improvement of their condition and the bettering of their advantages for intellectual and moral instruction, together with such other information as he may deem to be useful to the general assembly in the proper performance of its legislative duties in reference to the subjects in regard to which he is required to report.

SECTION 2. Every employer of labor and every person engaged in any industrial pursuit shall give the commissioner of industrial statistics all proper and necessary information to enable him to perform the duties herein required of him, and in default thereof, upon reasonable demand, shall be fined twenty dollars.

CHAPTER 649.-Employment of children.

SECTION 5. No child under 10 years of age shall be employed in any manufacturing, mechanical or mercantile establishment, or by any telegraph or telephone company in this state, during the time that the public schools of the town or city in which said child may reside are in session, and any parent or guardian who permits such employments shall for every such offence be fined not exceeding twenty dollars.

SECTION 6. No child between the ages of 10 and 15 years shall be so employed except during the vacations of the public schools of the town or district in which such child resides, unless during the twelve months next preceding such employment he shall have attended school as provided for in section 1 of this act [viz., twelve weeks, of which at least six weeks shall be consecutive,] or shall have already acquired the elementary branches of learning taught in the public schools, or shall have been excused by the school committee of the town in which such child resides, nor shall such employment continue unless such child shall attend school as above provided each year, or until he shall have acquired the elementary branches of learning taught in the public schools, and no child shall be so employed who does not present a certificate made by or under the direction of said school committee of his compliance with the requirements of this section.

SECTION 7. Every owner, superintendent or overseer of any establishment named in section 5 of this act shall require and keep on file a certificate of the place and date of birth of every child under fifteen years of age employed therein, as nearly accurate as may be, so long as such child is so employed, which certificate shall also state, in the case of a child under fifteen years of age, the amount of his school attendance during the year next preceding such employment. The certificates herein mentioned shall be signed by a member of the school committee of the town or city where such attendance was had, or by someone authorized by such committee, and the form of said certificate shall be furnished by the secretary of the state board of education.

SECTION 8. Every owner, superintendent or overseer of any such establishment or company who employs or permits to be employed any child in violation of either of the two next preceding sections, and every parent or guardian who permits such employment shall be fined not exceeding twenty dollars.

SECTION 9. The truant officers shall at least once in every school term, and as often as the school committee require, visit the establishments described in section 5 of this act, in their respective towns and cities, and ascertain whether the provisions of the four next preceding sections hereof are duly observed, and report all violations thereof to the school committee.

SECTION 10. The truant officers shall demand the names of the children under fifteen years of age employed in such establishments or company in their respective towns and cities, and shall require the certificates of age and school attendance prescribed in section 7 of this act to be produced for their inspection, and

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a refusal to produce such certificates shall be punished by a fine not exceeding ten dollars.

SECTION 11. Every owner, superintendent, or overseer of any such establishment or company who employs or permits to be employed therein, a child under fifteen years of age who can not write his name, age and place of residence legibly, while the public schools in the town or city where such child lives are in session, shall for every such offense be fined not exceeding twenty dollars.

ACTS OF 1890.

CHAPTER 826.-Fire escapes on factories, etc.

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SECTION 1. Every building three or more stories in height, * wholly or in part as a *, factory or workshop in which employés are usually working in the third or any higher story thereof *, shall be provided by the owner or owners thereof either with proper and sufficient strong and durable metallic fire escapes upon the external walls, sufficient in number, which fire escapes shall extend from the highest occupied story to the top of the first story of said building, or with proper and sufficient incombustible stairs and stairways at opposite ends of the building, extending from the highest occupied story to the ground; said stairs and stairway shall be connected by open passageways of suitable width; said fire escapes, stairs and stairways to be suitable and sufficient to afford to persons within said building proper egress from said building in case of fire therein, and to be kept in repair by said owner or owners. SECTION 3. It shall be the duty of the inspector of buildings * *, within sixty days after their appointment and from time to time thereafter as may be necessary, to make a careful and thorough inspection of all buildings in the city or town for which they shall be elected, which in their opinion might, by reason of the height thereof, character or number of stairways, number of persons ordinarily therein or at work therein, nature of use of said buildings, nature of the industries or occupations carried on therein, or for any other reason be specially dangerous to persons therein in case of conflagration in said buildings. SECTION 4. In case any other building , in the opinion of the inspector * *, shall require fire escapes or stairs and stairways as herein before provided, said inspector shall in writing notify and require the owner or owners thereof, within sixty days from the receipt of said notice, to provide said building with such fire escapes or stairs and stairways, and in such case it shall be the duty of said owner or owners to comply with said notice. Said inspector shall deposit with the city or town clerk for said town or city a true and certified copy of such notice, to be kept on file by said town or city clerk. * * SECTION 5. Said inspectors of buildings shall have power

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* to exempt by written certificate, setting forth the reasons therefor any building from the provisions of this act

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SECTION 7. The owner or owners of any building or premises under lease may enter upon such leased building with the purpose of making said building comply with the provisions of this act, ing with the lessee no more than may be necessary. SECTION 8. In all cases in which any person shall suffer injury or in which the death of any person shall ensue in consequence of the failure of the owner or owners of any building to provide the same with fire escapes or stairs and stairways, as required by the provisions of this act, or in consequence of the failure of said owner or owners to comply with the written notice and requirement of any inspector of buildings, when made in conformity to the provisions of this act, such owner or owners shall be jointly and severally liable to any person so injured in an action of trespass on the case, for damages for such injury; and in case of death such owner or owners shall be jointly and severally liable in damages for the injury caused by the death of such person, to be recovered by action of trespass on the case, * *. It shall be no defense to said actions that the person injured, or whose death ensued, as aforesaid, had knowledge that any such building was not provided with fire escapes or stairs and stairways * * or that such person continued to work in or occupy such building with said knowledge.

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SECTION 9. The owner or owners of any building, or in case such owner or any of them be non compos or a minor, the guardian of any such owner, or in case such owner or any of them be a nonresident, the agent of any such owner having charge of such property who shall neglect or fail to comply with the provisions of this act shall be fined not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars.

SOUTH CAROLINA.

CONSTITUTION.

ARTICLE I.-Exemption from execution, etc.—Homesteads.

SECTION 20. * * * A reasonable amount of property, as a homestead, shall be exempted from seizure or sale for the payment of any debts or liabilities.

ARTICLE II.—Exemptions from execution, etc.

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SECTION 32, (as amended). The general assembly shall enact such laws as will exempt from attachment and sale under any mesne or final process issued from any court to the head of any family residing in this state a homestead in lands, whether held in fee or any lesser estate, not to exceed in value one thousand dollars, with the yearly products thereof; and every head of a family residing in this state, whether entitled to a homestead exemption in lands or not, Lersonal property not to exceed in value the sum of five hundred dollars: * Provided, That no property shall be exempt from attachment, levy, or sale for taxes, or for payment of obligations contracted for the purchase of said homestead or the erection of improvements thereon: Provided further, That the yearly products of said homestead shall not be exempt from attachment, levy or sale, for the payment of obligations contracted in the production of the same.

GENERAL STATUTES OF 1882.

CHAPTER 11.-Exemptions from taxation.

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SECTION 169. The following property shall be exempt from taxation, to wit:

20th. All the wearing apparel of the person required to make return, and his family.

21st. Articles actually provided for the present subsistence of the person or his family, to the value of one hundred dollars.

CHAPTER 39.-Charters for corporations.

SECTION 1376. Charters for

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* * labor, agricultural, manufacturing, industrial, mining, or other like societies and companies, shall be granted by the clerk of the court of the county wherein the applicants therefor reside, or propose to carry on business, or hold property.

CHAPTER 40.-Sunday labor-Railroads.

SECTION 1475. It shall be unlawful for any railroad corporation owning or controlling railroads operating in this state, to load or unload or permit to be loaded or unloaded, or to run or permit to be run, on Sunday, any locomotive, cars, or train of cars, moved by steam power, except as hereinafter provided, and except to unload cars loaded with animals.

SECTION 1477. It shall be lawful for any train running by a schedule in conformity with the provisions of this chapter, but delayed by accident or other unavoidable circumstance, to be run until it reaches the point at which it is usual for it to rest upon a Sunday.

SECTION 1478. For a wilful violation of the provisions of sections 1475, 1476, and 1477 of this chapter, the railroad company so offending shall forfeit to the state five hundred dollars, to be collected in any court of competent jurisdiction.

CHAPTER 49.-Sunday labor.

SECTION 1631. No tradesman, artificer, laborer, or other person whatsoever, shall do or exercise any worldly labor, business, or work of their ordinary callings upon the Lord's day, (commonly called the Sabbath,) or any part thereof, (works of necessity or charity only excepted;) and every person, being of the

age of fifteen years or upwards, offending in the premises, shall, for every such offence, forfeit the sum of one dollar.

SECTION 1632. No person or persons whatsoever shall publicly cry, show forth, or expose to sale, any wares, merchandise, fruit, herbs, goods, or chattels whatsoever, upon the Lord's Day, or any part thereof, upon pain that every person so offending shall forfeit the same goods so cried, or showed forth, or exposed to sale. CHAPTER 71.-Exemption from execution, etc.-Homesteads.

SECTION 1994. A homestead in lands, whether held in fee or any lesser estate, not to exceed in value one thousand (1,000) dollars, with the yearly products thereof, shall be exempt to the head of every family residing in this state from attachment, levy, or sale, in any mesne or final process issued from any court upon any judgment obtained upon any right of action arising subsequent to the ratification of the constitution of the state of South Carolina.

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SECTION 1997. If the husband be dead, the widow and children, if the father and mother be dead, the children living on the homestead, whether any or all such children be minors or not, shall be entitled to have the family homestead exempted in like manner as if the husband or parents were living: and the homestead so exempted shall be subject to partition among all the children of the head of the family in like manner as if no debts existed: Provided, That no partition or sale in that case shall be made until the youngest child becomes of age, unless, upon proof satisfactory to the court hearing the case, such sale is deemed best for the interest of such minor or minors.

CHAPTER 71.-Exemption from execution, etc.-Personal property.

SECTION 1999. The personal property of the head of any family residing in this state to the extent of five hundred dollars shall be exempt from attachment, levy, or sale: Provided, That in case the right of such exemption be disputed by the creditors, the officer in whose hands the process is lodged shall cause the same to be ascertained and appraised; and all exempted property so ascertained and appraised by appraisers appointed and sworn for that purpose, and the return of which has been duly made, filed, and recorded, as provided in the first two sections of this chapter, shall vest absolutely in the party freed from all debts of the debtors then existing, or thereafter contracted, whether such debtors retain or sell the property: Provided, further, That a debtor being the head of a family, as hereinbefore stated, and not being the owner of any homestead, shall be entitled to a like exemption of personal property as herein allowed to the owner of a homestead, to be ascertained in the same manner.

CHAPTER 78.-Contracts with, employment and payment of wayes of, laborers. SECTION 2081. All contracts made between owners of land, their agents, administrators, or executors, and laborers, shall be witnessed by one or more disinterested persons, and, at the request of either party, be duly executed before a trial justice, whose duty it shall be to read and explain the same to the parties. Such contracts shall clearly set forth the conditions upon which the laborer or laborers engaged to work, embracing the length of time, the amount of money to be paid, and when: if it be on shares of crops, what portion of the crop or crops. SECTION 2082. Whenever labor is performed under contract on shares of crop or crops, such crop or crops shall be gathered and divided off before it is removed from the place where it was planted, harvested, or gathered. Such division to be made by a disinterested person, when desired by either party to the contract. And such disintested party shall be chosen by and with the consent of the contracting parties; whenever the parties fail to agree upon any disinterested party, or, if complaint is made that the division has been unfairly made, within ten days after such division, it shall be the duty of the trial justice residing nearest the place where such crop or crops are planted, harvested, or gathered, to cause, under his immediate supervision, such equitable division as may be stipulated in the contract. Such disinterested party or trial justice shall receive ⚫ reasonable compensation for such service, to be paid by both of the contracting parties, according to their several interests, except in cases of an attempt to wilfully defraud the other by one of the contracting parties; and then such compensation shall be paid by the party so attempting to defraud the other. When such division has been made, each party shall be free to disj ose of their several portions as to him or her or them may seem fitting: Provided, That if either party be in debt to the other for any obligation incurred under contract, the amount of said indebtedness may be then and there settled and paid by such

portion of the share or shares of the party so indebted as may be agreed upon by the parties themselves, or set apart by the trial justice, or any party chosen to divide said crop or crops.

SECTION 2083. Whenever laborers are working on shares of crop or crops, or for wages in money, or other valuable consideration, they shall have a prior lien upon said crop or crops, in whosesoever hands it may be. Such portion of the crop or crops to them belonging, or such amount of money or other valuable consideration due, shall be recoverable by an action in any court of competent jurisdiction.

SECTION 2084, (as amended by act No. 240, acts of 1889). Whenever such contract or contracts are violated or attempted to be violated or broken, or whenever fraud is practiced or attempted to be practiced, by either party to such contract or contracts, at any time before the conditions of the same are fulfilled and the parties released therefrom, complaint may be made before a trial justice. If the offending party be the land owner or owners, his, her or their agent or agents, and fraud has been practiced or attempted to be practiced, either in keeping any account or accounts between him, her or them, and the other party or parties to such contract or contracts, or in the division of the crop or crops, or the payment of money or other valuable consideration, upon conviction such offender or offenders shall be fined in a sum not less than five dollars nor more than one hundred dollars, or be imprisoned for a period of not less than ten days nor more than thirty days; or if it be a disinterested party chosen to make a division or divisions of crops herein before provided, he, she or they shall be liable to prosecution as for a misdemeanor, and on conviction shall be fined in a sum not less than five nor more than one hundred dollars, or be imprisoned for a period not less than ten days nor more than thirty days. If the offending party be a laborer, or laborers, and the offence consist either in failing, willfully and without just cause, to give the labor reasonably required of him, her or them, by the terms of each contract, or in other respects shall refuse to comply with the conditions of such contract or contracts, or shall fraudulently make use of or carry away from the place where the crop or crops he, she or they may be working are planted any. portion of said crop or crops, or anything connected therewith or belonging thereto, such person or persons so offending shall be liable to prosecution, and on conviction before any trial justice be fined in a sum not less than five dollars nor more than one hundred dollars, or be imprisoned for a period not less than ten days nor more than thirty days.

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SECTION 2086. Unless otherwise provided by special contract, all persons who employ laborers upon plantations or elsewhere, by the day, week, month, or year, shall pay such laborers or employés in lawful money. Any person or persons who shall offer to any laborer or employé, at the time when the wages of such laborer or employé are due and payable by agreement tion for labor and services performed, checks and scrip of any description, known as plantation checks, payable at some future time, or in the shops or stores of employers, in lieu of lawful money, shall be liable to indictment and punishment, by a fine not exceeding two hundred dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, according to the discretion of the court: Provided, The word "checks" in this chapter shall not be construed so as to prohibit the giving of checks upon any of the authorized banks of deposit or issue in this State.

CHAPTER 95.-Conditional sale of personal property.

SECTION 2347. In all bills of sale of any plate, gold and silver, or goods and chattels whatsoever, by way of mortgage, with right of redemption upon performance of the proviso in said bill of sale, where the plate, gold and silver. or goods and chattels, are actually delivered unto the person to whom such bill of sale is made, and are in his actual possession, (and not a delivery or seizin in form of law only), and shall continue in the same for the space of two years after the breach of the proviso in the said bill of sale, without redemption thereof, the said goods or chattels so sold and delivered and possessed as aforesaid, though with right or equity of redemption, are hereby declared to be vested in the said person or persons to whom such bill of sale was made, and their executors, administrators, and assigns, to have and to hold to them, their executors, administrators, and assigns, as their own proper goods and chattels forever; excepting such person or persons having such right or equity of redemption be beyond the seas, or otherwise out of the limits of this state, all which persons shall have saved to them their equity of redemption, so as they prosecute the same within three years after the breach of the proviso of the bill of sale, and

at no time thereafter.