highest number of votes for Governor, the other from the party which cast the next greatest number of votes, and the third from a bona fide labor organization of the State. Disputes or grievances may be submitted in the first instance to the State Board, and, in case of a strike or a lockout, the Board is directed to proceed to the locality where it occurs, to inquire into the cause of the controversy, and to endeavor by mediation to settle it. This act, which is similar to the Massachusetts statute, merely provides the legal machinery for conciliation; it does not pretend to impart to the decision of the arbitrators the legal authority of a judicial decree which is to be enforced by the power of the State. No child under thirteen years of age can be employed in a manufacturing establishment, nor can a child under sixteen years be so employed, unless the parent or guardian shall file an affidavit stating its age, date, and place of birth. Hoisting-shafts and well-holes are required to be properly inclosed or secured. Ten hours of labor within twelve consecutive hours, with reasonable time for meals, constitute a day's labor on street, surface, and elevated railroads. Every Saturday from twelve o'clock at noon till midnight is made a half holiday. The sale of impure, unwholesome, or adulterated milk or cream, as well as any article of food made from the same, is prohibited. An act has been passed to protect the owners of bottles, boxes, syphons, and kegs used in the sale of soda water, mineral waters, ale, milk, beer, and other beverages; if the owner's name or mark is stamped or engraved or etched or blown or otherwise impressed on the bottle, box, or keg, and he has complied with the law as to registry and publication,. the use of such bottle, keg, or box by any other person is a misdemeanor; a similar act protects the owner of milk-cans, who is vested with the extraordinary power to empty into the street the contents of any of his cans which he sees in the unlawful possession of another person; but he must first give notice to such person to empty the can; the law is silent as to the disposition of the can when emptied-if the possessor on notice empties it, can he retain the can? If the owner takes possession of the can to empty it, must he return it to the unlawful possessor, or may he march off with it? I notice this act became a law without the approval of the Governor; perhaps this feudal method of righting wrongs by main force was distasteful to the Executive, who in the interest of peace would wish to avert a battle of the cans. The sale of goods made by convict labor in the prisons of other States is not allowed unless such goods are marked or branded with the words "convict made;" on the other hand, New Jersey requires all goods manufactured in the State prison and intended for sale to be stamped with the words, " Manufactured in the New Jersey State Prison." It is made unlawful for any employer of messenger boys to put in a disorderly house, or in a place where liquor is sold without license, any instrument or device by which communication may be had with any officer or place of business of the employer, and such employer is forbidden to send a messenger boy on an errand to a disorderly house, or to a place where liquor is sold without license. California has legislated on the same subject, and has made it unlawful to send minors on errands or with messages to houses of questionable repute or variety theatres. An act has been passed to protect primary elections and conventions of political parties. So many States have legislated on this subject that we may now regard primaries and conventions as recognized institutions of the country. New York has also regulated the manufacture and sale of wines and half-wines; pure wine must contain at least seventy-five per cent. of pure grape or other undried fruitjuice, and half-wine must contain more than fifty per cent. of such juice; all half-wines must be stamped and sold as such; all wine is considered adulterated, and the sale thereof is prohibited, which contains any alum, baryta salts, caustic lime, carbonate of soda, carbonate of potash, carbonic acid, salts of lead, glycerine, or any other antiseptic. Stoves and furnaces inside railroad cars for heating purposes are outlawed, and railroad companies are required to place guard-posts in the prolongation of the line of bridge trusses, so that in case of derailment the posts, and not the bridge trusses, shall receive the blow of the derailed locomotive or car. Druggists are forbidden to refill more than once prescriptions containing more than one-fourth of a grain of opium or half a grain of morphine, except on the verbal or written order of a physician. It is unlawful for any person or corporation to exact of an employee an agreement not to join a labor organization. as a condition of securing employment or of being continued in employment. NORTH CAROLINA. It has been enacted in North Carolina that in all actions to recover damages by reason of the negligence of the defendant, he cannot rely on the defense of contributory negligence unless it is set up in the answer. This State has also established a Bureau of Labor Statistics. Laborers and material men are secured by a lien on the building or vessel, to the construction or repair of which their labor or material contributed, and it is made the duty of a contractor to furnish to the owner an itemized account of the sums due for wages and material, which the owner must retain from the contract price and pay directly to the laborer or material man; the failure to furnish such itemized account before receiving any part of the contract price is a misdemeanor, punishable by fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the court. A similar statute protects laborers employed by stevedores to load or unload ships or other vessels. A divorce is allowed to the wife if the husband shall be indicted for a felony, and shall flee the State and does not return within one year. It is made unlawful for any railroad to collect for the transportation of freight of the same class a greater amount as toll or compensation for a short distance than for a longer distance in the same direction over its road, but the railroad company may make special contracts with shippers of large quantities to be of not less in quantity than one carload. The sale of dangerous explosives has been regulated. It is made unlawful to publish any account of a lottery, whether within or without the State, indicating when and where the same is to be or has been drawn, or the price of a ticket, or where it can be obtained. There is a statute to simplify indictments for murder and manslaughter, which abolishes "the fear of God" and "the instigation of the devil." This elimination from indictments of the lecture to the bewildered prisoner will no doubt be regretted by the pious old-fashioned clerk, who delighted in reading it ore rotundo as much as some modern Plowdens bemoan the loss of John Doe and Richard Roe, of absque hoc and de injuria. But the most curious statute passed by the North Carolina Legislature is that which exacts from every company of gypsies, who make a support by pretending to tell fortunes, the payment of $150 to each county in which they offer to practice their craft, and then, with extraordinary sang froid, proceeds to declare that payment of the license shall not exempt the gypsies from indictment for practicing their art. OHIO. The law respecting husband and wife has undergone considerable change in Ohio; this State has given dower to the husband. Tenancy by the courtesy has been abolished, but the widower as well as the widow is endowed of an estate for life in one-third of all the real property of which the deceased consort was seized as an estate of inheritance at any time during the marriage, or of which such consort at the time of death held the fee simple title in reversion or remainder, or by virtue of an agreement or other evidence of title; but a conveyance of real estate in lieu of dower to take effect on the death of the grantor, will, if accepted by the grantee, bar the right of dower; but if the conveyance be made during marriage, or when the grantee was a minor, the grantee has the right of election. A husband or wife who leaves the other and dwells in adultery is barred of the right of dower unless the offense is condoned. Husband or wife may enter into any contract with the other, or with third persons, which either might make if unmarried; but husband and wife cannot contract to alter their legal relations, but they may agree to an immediate separation, and for the support of either of them and their children during the separation. Contracts between husband and wife are subject to the general rules which control the actions of persons occupying confidential relations with each other. A married person can take, hold, and dispose of property, real or personal, the same as if unmarried, and neither husband nor wife as such is answerable for the acts of the other. Thus State after State has swept away the last vestige of marital law so dear to our feudal ancestors, and drawing inspiration from a source so distasteful to the ancient sages of the common law of England, the modern legislator has advanced beyond the civilian, who forbids husband and wife to contract with each other, and does not permit the wife to alienate her real estate or accept gifts without the consent of her husband, or to bind herself as his surety, though she may, with his consent, become the surety of another. This State has repealed what are termed in Ohio "the black laws," that is to say, the law authorizing separate public schools for colored children and the law which prohibited the intermarriage of white persons with persons of African descent. A tenant for life of real estate who commits waste forfeits that part of the property of which waste is committed to the immediate reversioner or remainder-man; he is, besides, liable in damages. Corporations may be organized for the apprehension and conviction of horse thieves and other felons; the members of the corporation upon the proper certificate of the presiding officers may pursue and arrest without warrant |