MAINE.

REVISED STATUTES OF 1883.

CHAPTER 6.--Exemption from taxation.

SECTION 6. The following property and polls are exempt from taxation:

III. The household furniture of each person, not exceeding two hundred dol lars to any one family, his wearing apparel, farming utensils, mechanics' tools necessary for his business, and musical instruments not exceeding in value fifteen dollars to one family.

V. All mules, horses, neat cattle, swine and sheep, less than six months old. VI. Hay, grain and potatoes, orchard products and wool, owned by, and in possession of the producer.

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SECTION 26. * ** Every building in which any trade, manufacture, or business is carried on, requiring the presence of workmen or other persons above the first story, shall at all times be provided with suitable and sufficient fire escapes, outside stairs, or ladders from each story or gallery above the level of the ground, easily accessible to all inmates in case of fire or of an alarm of fire; the sufficiency thereof to be determined as provided in the following section.

SECTION 27. In towns or parts of towns having no organized fire department, the municipal officers shall annually make careful inspection of the precautions and safeguards provided in compliance with the foregoing requirements, and pass upon their sufficiency as to arrangement and number, and upon their state of repair; and direct such alterations, additions and repairs as they adjudge necessary. In towns, cities and villages having an organized fire department, the duties aforesaid shall be discharged by the board of fire engi

neers.

SECTION 28. Such municipal officers or fire engineers shall give written notice to the occupant of such building, also to the owner thereof, if known, of their determination as to the sufficiency of said precautions and safeguard, specifying in said notice any alteration, addition or repair which they require. Sixty days are allowed for compliance with such notice and order.

SECTION 29. Any owner or occupant who neglects to comply with such order, within the time so allowed, forfeits fifty dollars, besides five dollars for every day's continuance of such neglect; and the building or part of a building so occupied shall be deemed a common nuisance, without any other evidence than proof of its use; and the keeper shall be punished accordingly. Said officers may forbid the use of such building for any public purpose until their order has been complied with. And if the owner or occupant of said building lets or uses the same in violation of such order, he forfeits not less than twenty nor more than fifty dollars for each offence.

SECTION 30, (as amended by chapter 126, acts of 1887). Whenever the municipal officers or engineers, upon inspection, find that proper safeguards and precautions for escape in case of fire, or of alarm, have been provided, they shall give to the occupant of such building a certificate, under their hands, of such fact; which shall be valid for one year only from its date; * *. Such officers shall return to the clerk's office of their town, monthly, a list of such certificates by them issued, which the clerk shall record in a suitable book.

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SECTION 31, (as amended by chapter 126, acts of 1887). Every person receiving such certificate shall keep such certificate posted in such building. Such annual certificate, so posted, is prima facie evidence of the inspection of such building, and of the presence of such suitable safeguards and precaution. Every occupant of such building who neglects or refuses to procure such certificate, or to post the same as aforesaid, forfeits ten dollars for every week that he so neg lects and refuses.

SECTION 32. Every municipal officer or fire engineer who refuses or neglects to perform the duties imposed upon him by the seven preceding sections forfeits fifty dollars.

CHAPTER 48.—Employment, hours of labor, etc., of children.

SECTION 13. No child shall be employed or suffered to work in a cotton or woollen manufactory without having attended a public school, or a private school taught by a person qualified to be a public teacher; if under twelve years of age, for four months, if over twelve and under fifteen, for three months, of the year preceding such employment. A certificate under oath of such teacher, filed with the clerk or agent before employment, is the proof of such schooling. SECTION 14. Any owner, agent or superintendent of such manufactory, for each violation of the preceding section, forfeits one hundred dollars, to be recovered by indictment, half to the prosecutor and half to the town where the offence was committed, to be added to its school money. Superintending school committees shall inquire into such violations, and report them to the county attorney, who shall prosecute therefor.

SECTION 15. No person under the age of sixteen years shall be employed by any corporation for more than ten hours of a day. Whoever violates this provision forfeits one hundred dollars, half to the town where the offence is committed, and half to the person employed; to be recovered by indictment.

CHAPTER 51.-Railroad companies to require security from contractors for payment of wages.

SECTION 141. Every railroad company, in making contracts for the building of its road, shall require sufficient security from the contractors for the payment of all labor thereafter performed in constructing the road by persons in their employment; and such company is liable to the laborers employed, for labor actually performed on the road, if they, within twenty days after the completion of such labor, in writing, notify its treasurer that they have not been paid by the contractors. But such liability terminates unless the laborer commences an action against the company, within six months after giving such notice.

CHAPTER 61.-Earnings of married women.

SECTION 3. She [a married woman] may receive the wages of her personal labor, not performed for her own family, maintain an action therefor in her own name, and hold them in her own right against her husband or any other person.

I. The fees, costs and expenses of suits and proceedings in insolvency. II. All debts and taxes due to the State or to any county, city or town therein, and to the United States, except debts due to the State in behalf of the State prison.

III. Wages due to any operative, clerk, or house servant, not exceeding fifty dollars, for labor performed within six months preceding the filing of the petition.

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CHAPTER 78.-Convict labor.

SECTION 13, (as amended by section 1, chapter 288, acts of 1889.) They [the county commissioners] shall, at the expense of their several counties, unless county workshops are therein established, provide some suitable place, materials and implements for the breaking of stone into suitable condition for the building and repair of highways, and shall cause all persons sentenced [under the tramplaw] to labor at breaking stone. And they may, at the expense of their several counties, provide suitable materials and implements sufficient to keep at work all persons committed to either of such jails, and may from time to time establish needful rules for employing, reforming and governing the persons so committed, for preserving such materials and implements, and for keeping and settling all accounts of the cost of procuring the same, and of all labor performed by each of the persons so committed, and may make all necessary contracts in behalf of their several counties.

CHAPTER 81.-Exemption from execution, etc.-Personal property.

SECTION 62, (as amended by chapter 64, acts of 1887). The following personal property is exempt from attachment and execution:

I. The debtor's apparel: household furniture necessary for himself, wife and children, not exceeding one hundred dollars in value and one bed, bedstead, and necessary bedding for every two such persons.

II. All family portraits, Bibles, and school books in actual use in the family; one copy of the statutes of the State, and a.library not exceeding one hundred and fifty dollars in value.

III. All his interest in one pew in a meetinghouse where he and his family statedly worship.

IV. One cooking stove; all iron stoves used exclusively for warming buildings: charcoal, and not exceeding twelve cords of wood conveyed to his house for the use of himself and family; all anthracite coal, not exceeding five tons; all bituminous coal, not exceeding fifty bushels; and ten dollars' worth of lumber, wood cr bark.

V. All produce of farms until harvested; one barrel of flour; corn and grain necessary for himself and family, not exceeding thirty bushels; all potatoes raised or bought for himself and family; and all flax raised on a half acre of land, and all articles manufactured therefrom for the use of himself and family.

VI. The tools necessary for his trade or occupation, materials and stock designed and procured by him and necessary for carrying on his trade or business and intended to be used or wrought therein, not exceeding fifty dollars in value, and one sewing machine not exceeding one hundred dollars, for actual use by himself or family.

VII. One pair of working cattle, or instead thereof one pair of mules or one or two horses not exceeding in value three hundred dollars, and a sufficient quantity of hay to keep them through the winter season. If he has more than one pair of working cattle, or mules, or if the two horses exceed in value three hundred dollars, he may elect which pair of cattle or mules or which horse shall be exempt. If he has a pair of mules or one or two horses so exempt, he may also have exempt for each of said horses or mules, one harness not exceeding twenty dollars in value; and one horse sled not exceeding the same value; but if he has at the same time an ox sled, he may elect which sled shall be exempt.

VIII. Domestic fowl, not exceeding fifty dollars in value, two swine, one cow, and one heifer under three years old, or if he has no oxen, horse or mule, two cows, and he may elect the cow or cows and heifer, if he has more than are exempt, ten sheep and the wool from them, and the lambs raised from them until they are one year old, and a suflicient quantity of hay to keep said cattle, sheep and lambs through the winter season.

IX. One plow, one cart or truck wagon or one express wagon, one harrow, one yoke with bows, ring and staple, two chains, one ox sled and one mowing machine.

X. One boat not exceeding two tons burden, usually employed in fishing business, belonging wholly to an inhabitant of the State.

CHAPTER 81.—Exemption from execution, etc.-Homesteads.

SECTION 63. A lot of land and dwelling-house and out-buildings thereon, the property of a householder in actual possession thereof and not the owner of an exempted lot purchased from the State, is exempt from attachment and levy on execution as provided in the following sections:

SECTION 64. Such person may file in the registry of deeds in the county or district where the land lies, a certificate signed by him, declaring his wish for such exemption and describing the land and buildings; and the register, for fifty cents, shall record it in a suitable book; and so much of such property as does not execed five hundred dollars in value, is exempt from attachment or levy on execution issued on a judgment recovered for any debt, contracted jointly or sev erally by such person after the date of the recording thereof; and the record in the register's office is prima facie evidence that the certificate purporting to be there recorded, was made, signed, and filed as there appears.

SECTION 66. After his death, the exempted premises shall not be sold for payment of his debts during the widowhood of his widow, or the minority of any of his children; but may be occupied by his widow during her widowhood and by his children during minority, free from claim by any creditor of his estate. But this and the three preceding sections do not exempt such property from the lien of mechanics or material men.

CHAPTER 82.-Hours of labor.

SECTION 43. In all contracts for labor, ten hours of actual labor are a legal day's work, unless the contract stipulates for a longer time; but this rule does not apply to monthly labor or to agricultural employments.

CHAPTER 86.-Exemption from garnishment, etc.-Wages.

VI. By reason of any amount due from him to the principal defendant, as wages for his personal labor, or that of his wife or minor children, for a time not exceeding one month next preceding the service of the process, and not exceeding twenty dollars of the amount due to him as wages for his personal labor; and this is not exempt in any suit for necessaries furnished him or his family; moreover, wages of minor children and of women, are not. in any case, subject to trustee process on account of any debt of parent or husband.

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CHAPTER 123.-Strikes of railroad employés.

SECTION 6. Any employé of a railroad corporation who, in pursuance of an agreement or combination by two or more persons to do, or procure to be done, any act in contemplation or futherance of a dispute between such corporation and its employés, unlawfully or in violation of his duty or contract, stops or unnecessarily delays or abandons, or in any way injures a locomotive or any car or train of cars on the railway track of such corporation, or in any way hinders or obstructs the use of any locomotive, car or train of cars on the railroad of such corporation, shall be punished by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or imprisonment in the State prison or in jail not exceeding one year.

SECTION 7. Whoever, by any unlawful act, or by any wilful omission or neglect, obstructs or causes to be obstructed an engine or carriage on any railroad or railway, or aids or assists therein; or whoever, having charge of any locomotive or carriage while upon or in use on any railway of any railroad corporation, wilfully stops, leaves or abandons the same, or renders, or aids or assists in rendering the same unfit for or incapable of immediate use, with intent thereby to hinder, delay, or in any manner to obstruct or injure the management and operation of any railroad or railway, or the business of any corporation operating or owning the same, or of any other corporation or person, and whoever aids or assists therein, shall be punished by fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or imprisonment in the State prison or in jail not exceeding two years.

SECTION 8. Whoever, having any management of, or control, either alone or with others, over any railroad locomotive, car or train, while it is used for the carriage of persons or property, or is at any time guilty of gross carelessness or neglect on, or in relation to, the management or control thereof; or maliciously stops or delays the same, in violation of the rules and regulations then in force for the operation thereof; or abstracts therefrom the tools or appliances pertaining thereto, with intent thereby maliciously to delay the same, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or imprisonment in the state prison or in jail not exceeding three years.

SECTION 9. Whoever, alone, or in pursuance or furtherance of any agreement or combination with others, to do, or procure to be done, any act in contemplation or furtherance of a dispute or controversy between a gas, telegraph, or railroad corporation and its employés or workmen, wrongfully and without legal authority, uses violence towards, or intimidates any person, in any way or by any means, with intent thereby to compel such person against his will to do, or abstain from doing, any act which he has a legal right to do or abstain from doing; or on the premises of such corporation, by bribery, or in any manner or by any means, induces, or endeavors or attempts to induce, such person to leave the employment and service of such corporation with intent thereby to further the objects of such combination or agreement; or in any way interferes with such person while in the performance of his duty; or threatens or persistently follows such person in a disorderly manner, or injures or threatens to injure his property with either of said intents, shall be punished by fine not exceeding three hundred dollars, or imprisonment not exceeding three months.

SECTION 10. Any person in the employment of a railroad corporation, who, in furtherance of the interests of either party to a dispute between another railH, Rep, 1960-13

road corporation and its employés, refuses to aid in moving the cars of such other corporation, or trains in whole or in part made up of the cars of such other corporation, over the tracks of the corporation employing him; or refuses to aid in loading or discharging such cars, in violation of his duty as such employé, shall be punished by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or imprisonment in the state prison or in jail not exceeding one year.

CHAPTER 124.-Sunday labor.

SECTION 20. Whosoever, on the Lord's Day, keeps open his shop, workhouse, warehouse, or place of business, travels, or does any work, labor, or business on that day, except works of necessity or charity; *shall be punished by fine not exceeding ten dollars.

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SECTION 23. No person conscientiously believing that the seventh day of the week ought to be observed as the Sabbath, and actually refraining from secular business and labor on that day, is liable to said penalties for doing such business and labor on the first day of the week, if he does not disturb other persons.

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CHAPTER 126.-Conspiracy.

SECTION 18. If two or more persons conspire and agree together, with the fraudulent or malicious intent wrongfully and wickedly to injure the person, character, business, or property of another; or to do any illegal act injurious to the public tra le, *they are guilty of a conspiracy, and every such offender, and every person convicted of conspiracy at common law, shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than three years, or by fine not exceeding one thousand dollars.

ACTS OF 1887.

CHAPTER 69.-Bureau of industrial and labor statistics.

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SECTION 1. There is hereby established a separate and distinct department, which shall be called the bureau of industrial and labor statistics. SECTION 2. It shall be the duty of this department to collect, assort, systematize, and present in annual reports to the governor statistical details, relating to all departments of labor in the state, especially in its relations to the commercial, industrial, social, educational and sanitary condition of the laboring people; and to the permanent prosperity of the productive industries of the state, and also to inquire into the immediate causes of strikes, lock-outs, or other disturbances of the relations between employers and employés. SECTION 3. The governor shall, with the advice and consent of the council, appoint * * * biennially * some suitable person, who is identified with the industrial and labor interests, and who shall be designated commissioner of industrial and labor statistics *

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SECTION 5. The commissioner shall have power to take and preserve evidence, examine witnesses under oath, and administer the same, and in the discharge of his duty, may enter any public institution of the state, and at reasonable hours when open for business, any factory, workshop, mine or other place where labor may be employed.

SECTION 6, (as amended by chapter 297, acts of 1889). All state, county, city, and town officers, are hereby directed to furnish to said commissioner upon his request, all statistical information in reference to labor and labor industries, which shall be in their possession as such officers, and said commissioner shall cause to be published and circulated in this state, six thousand copies annually of the results of its labors, as to the objects for which commission is created.

CHAPTER 134.-Payment of wages.

SECTION 1. Every manufacturing, mining, quarrying, stone-cutting, mercantile, horse railroad, telegraph, telephone and municipal corporation, and every incorporated express and water company, and any person or firm engaged in any of the above specified kinds of business, having in their employ more than ten persons, shall pay fortnightly each and every employé engaged in its business, the wages earned by such employè to within eight days of the date of said