feet in width, may be erected to cover the entire area of said lot, provided that every window opening from the living rooms in said tenement house shall open upon one of such streets. Such open space attached to every such tenement house shall be at least eight feet in width throughout its entire length. No court or open space between tenement houses, or between wings of a tenement house, shall be of a less width than twelve feet. If such tenement house shall be built upon a lot which is bounded upon two opposite sides by streets, then at least one end of every such open space shall abut upon one of such streets. Every court or shaft which shall be built for the purpose of furnishing light or air to any such tenement house shall open upon one side into a street, or into the yard or open space, except such shafts as may be necessary for the ventilation of water-closets or bath

rooms.

SEC. 3. Every room in every such tenement house shall have at least one window opening upon a street, or upon the open space provided for in the second section of this act. And the distance from every window in every such tenement house to the wall or party line opposite to it, shall be at least eight feet. The halls on each floor of every such tenement house shall have a window or windows opening either upon a street or upon the open space provided for in the second section of this act, and shall have no room or other obstruction at the end, unless sufficient light and ventilation is otherwise provided for said halls in a manner approved by the chief of the bureau of building inspection. But whenever in the judgment of the chief of the bureau of building inspection it shall be possible to construct such tenement house without corridors connecting the entrance of several tenements or suites of rooms, the chief of the bureau of building inspection may require that such tenement house be so constructed that it shall contain no such corridors.

SEC. 4. Every habitable room in every such tenement house shall be of such dimensions as to contain at least seven hundred cubic feet of air. Every habitable room in every such tenement house shall be in every part not less than eight feet in height from floor to ceiling, and every window shall have an opening of not less than twelve square feet in superficial area, but the bureau of building inspection may permit windows of less size than twelve square feet, if more than one window is provided for a room, so that however the total window space for any one room shall not be less than twelve square feet.

SEC. 5. All stairways in such tenement houses shall lead directly to the ground floor. The location and construction of all stairways shall be determined by the chief of the bureau of building inspection so as to provide for the safety of the occupants of such tenement house.

All such tenement houses shall be provided with a tower fire escape, or tower fire escapes, inclosed in incombustible material, the number and location of which shall be determined by the chief of the bureau of building inspection.

All stairways shall have a rise of not over eight inches to a step, and not less than nine inches tread, exclusive of the nosing. All stairways and all hallways must be not less than three feet in width in houses containing less than fifteen rooms; not less than three feet six inches in width in houses containing not less than fifteen rooms and not more than twenty-five rooms; and not less than four feet in width in houses containing twenty-five or more rooms.

SEC. 6. In every such tenement house there shall be one water-closet for every tenement or suite of rooms which has its own independent hallway, so separated that its rooms do not open into or connect with any other rooms; and in tenement houses so constructed that a tenement may consist of a single room, or of two rooms, there shall be at least one water-closet for every three rooms: Provided, That in the case of buildings existing at the date of this act which shall hereafter be altered into tenement houses, there shall be one water-closet for six rooms, but not less than one for each floor. Every water-closet shall be separated from every other water-closet and shall have an entrance entirely independent of the entrance to every other water-closet. There shall also be an independent water supply, and at least one sink for every tenement or suite of rooms. No hydrant shall be permitted in the yard or open space provided for in the second section of this act. SEC. 7. In every such tenement house there shall be a suitable receptacle for ashes, constructed of incombustible material, and interior chutes or shafts leading to the same shall not be permitted.

SEC. 8. All such tenement houses, more than four stories in height, which shall hereafter be erected, altered or constructed, shall be made fireproof throughout: Provided however, That this section shall not preclude the use of wooden floor boards and sleepers or beams to which to fasten the same, which, however, shall be imbedded to their top surface in incombustible material.

SEC. 9. The chief of the bureau of building inspection shall require such plans

and specifications of any proposed erections, alterations or constructions of tenement houses as sufficiently set forth and record the intent of the builder to comply with the requirements of this act, to be filed with him. And no permit for the erection or construction of any such tenement house shall be granted, unless the same shall be in conformity with the provisions of this act.

SEC. 10. Any person who shall erect, alter or construct such a tenement house, except in conformity with the provisions of this act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, be sentenced to an imprisonment not exceeding three months, or to pay a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or both, at the discretion of the court.

SEC. 12. The term tenement house in this act shall be taken to mean every building which, or a portion of which, is occupied, or is to be occupied, as a residence of three or more families, living independently of each other. and doing their cooking upon the premises.

ACT NO. 133.-Registration, etc., of plumbers in cities and boroughs.

SEC. 1. From and after the passage of this act, the boards of health in cities and boroughs of this Commonwealth shall be and they are hereby authorized and directed to adopt and promulgate suitable rules and regulations for the construction of house drainage and cesspools, and to provide for the registration of journeymen and master plumbers, and persons engaged in the plumbing business in cities and boroughs: Provided, That the provisions of this act shall not apply to boroughs having no system of water supply or system of sewage.

SEC. 2. Any person who shall refuse or neglect to comply with the requirements of said rules and regulations when promulgated, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction be sentenced to pay a fine of not more than one hundred (100) dollars, or undergo an imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, in the discretion of the court: Provided, That the provisions of this act shall not be construed to repeal the provisions of an act, entitled "An act authorizing the boards of health in cities of the first class to regulate house drainage, the registration of master plumbers and the construction of cesspools," approved the thirtieth day of June, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and eighty-five.

ACT No. 182.-Citizens of the United States only to be employed on public works. SEC. 1. None but citizens of the United States shall be employed in any capacity in the erection, enlargement or improvement of any public building or public work within this Commonwealth: Provided, That apprentices to a trade or profession who may be under twenty-one years of age shall not be subject to the provisions of this act: Provided, That the provisions of this act shall not apply to public work where the cost thereof is paid in whole or in part from assessments of benefits.

SEC. 2. The person or persons who may be by law empowered to enter into a contract for the erection, enlargement or improvement of any public building or public work shall insert in such a contract a stipulation or covenant that the provisions of section one of this act will be fully complied with.

ACT No. 186.-Registration, licensing, etc., of plumbers.

SEC. 1. From and after the passage of this act it shall not be lawful for any firm, corporation, master plumber or journeyman plumber to carry on the business of plumbing or house drainage in cities of the second class of this Commonwealth, until a license or permit therefor shall have been granted by the director of the department of public safety of such cities.

SEC. 2. All firms, corporations, master plumbers or journeyman plumbers engaged or engaging in the business or work of plumbing and house drainage in said cities shall apply, in writing, to the said director of the department of public safety for such license or permit, and if, after proper examination made by the bureau of health of said cities, the firm, corporation, master plumber or journeyman plumber so applying shall be found competent, the same shall be certified to the director of said department who shall thereupon, issue a certificate to such firm, corporation, master plumber or journeyman plumber which shall entitle him or them to carry on said business or work at the same. A register of all such applicants and the certificates issued shall be kept in said department, which said register shall be open to the inspection of all persons interested therein. The director of the department of public safety is hereby authorized to appoint a board of examiners to consist of the superintendent of the bureau of health, one plumbing inspector and a competent plumber who shall examine all applicants for license under the provisions of this act. The said board shall make all reasonable 2352-63

rules, regulations and examinations which shall be approved by the said director of the department of public safety. An examination of any one member of a firm, or the proper officer of said corporation, shall be deemed sufficient. Said firm, corporation or master plumber engaged or engaging in the business or work of plumbing or house drainage shall pay for each examination the sum of five dollars, and each journeyman shall pay the sum of fifty cents, which sums shall be paid into the city treasury for the use of said cities. The proper officers of said cities are hereby authorized to pay the plumber acting on said board the sum of five dollars per day for each day or session actually employed, out of funds in the treasury of said cities not otherwise appropriated. The license granted under the provisions of this act may be revoked by the director of the department of public safety when any firm, corporation, master plumber or journeyman plumber shall be deemed incompetent, or for any other reasonable cause, but said firm, corporation, master plumber or journeyman plumber shall be entitled to an additional examination upon the payment of the fee provided in this act.

SEC. 3. Any firm, corporation, master plumber or journeyman plumber violating the provisions of this act, or any of them, shall be liable to a fine of not less than ten dollars, nor exceeding fifty dollars, for each and every day he or they shall engage in and conduct said business without having said certificate. Such fine shall be recoverable before any alderman or police magistrate in said cities by summary proceedings, and shall be sued for in the name of such cities, and when collected shall be paid into the treasury thereof.

ACT No. 194.-Exemption from execution, etc., sewing machines and typewriters. SEC. 1. Hereafter all sewing machines and typewriting machines, leased or hired by any person or persons residing in this Commonwealth, shall be exempt from levy and sale on execution or distress for rent due by such person or persons so leasing or hiring any such sewing machine or sewing machines, typewriting machine or typewriting machines, in addition to any articles or money now exempt by law: Provided, That the owner or owners of such sewing machine or sewing machines, typewriting machine or typewriting machines, or his or their agent or the person or persons so leasing or hiring the same, shall give notice to the landlord or his agent that the instrument is leased or hired.

ACT No. 260.-Mechanics' liens.

SEC. 1. No contract for the erection of the whole or any part of any building hereafter made, and no stipulation separately made as part of any such contract, whereby it is sought to deprive or hinder a contractor, subcontractor, materialman or other person from filing or maintaining a lien, commonly called a mechanics' lien, for work done or material furnished to such building or to any part thereof, shall operate to defeat the right of any subcontractor, material-man or other person to file and maintain such a lien, unless such contractor or the stipulation shall , specifically covenant against such lien by subcontractor or other person, and unless said stipulation shall be put in writing and signed by the parties thereto prior to the time authority is given to the principal contractor to proceed with said work, and unless said contract or said stipulation shall be filed with the prothonotary of the county where the land lies for record within ten days after its execution.

SEC. 2. The prothonotary shall record such contract or stipulation in the docket provided for mechanics' liens, shall index the same, making the contractor the plaintiff and the owner the defendant, and shall receive for his service the same fee as for filing and recording a mechanics' lien.

RHODE ISLAND.

CONSTITUTION.

ARTICLE I.-Slavery prohibited.

SECTION 4. Slavery shall not be permitted in this State.

GENERAL LAWS OF 1896,

CHAPTER 40.-Intelligence offices.

SECTION 18. Town councils may license suitable persons as keepers of intelligence offices for the purpose of obtaining or giving information concerning places of employment of domestics, servants or other laborers, except seamen, or for the

purpose of procuring or giving information concerning such person for or to employers, or for the purpose of procuring or giving information concerning employment in business; and may fix the amount to be paid for such licenses; and may revoke such licenses at pleasure. And whoever, without a license therefor, establishes or keeps an intelligence office for the purposes named in this section, shall be fined ten dollars for each day such office is so kept.

CHAPTER 60.-Free text-books in public schools.

SEC. 22. The school committee of every city and town shall purchase, at the expense of such city or town, text-books and other school supplies used in the public schools; and said text-books and supplies shall be loaned to the pupils of said public schools free of charge, subject to such rules and regulations as to care and custody as the school committee may prescribe.

CHAPTER 64.-Employment, etc., of children.

SEC. 1. Every person having under his control a child between the ages of seven and fifteen years shall annually cause such child to regularly attend for at least eighty full school days some public day school in the town or city in which such child resides; and while such child is not lawfully employed to labor at home or elsewhere said person shall cause such child to attend a public day school regularly during the days and hours that the public schools are in session in the city, town, or district where such child resides; and for every neglect of such duty the person so offending shall be fined not exceeding twenty dollars: Provided, That if the person so charged shall prove, or shall present a certificate, made by or under the direction of the school committee of the city or town wherein he resides, setting forth that the child has attended for the required period of time a private day school approved by the school committee of the city or town where said school is located, or that the child has been otherwise furnished for a like period of time with the means of education, or has already acquired the elementary branches of learning taught in the public schools, or that his physical or mental condition was such as to render his attendance inexpedient or impracticable or that the child was destitute of clothing suitable for attending school and that the person in charge of said child was unable to provide such clothing, or that the child has been excused from attending school by the school committee of the city or town where he resides, then such penalty shall not be incurred.

SEC. 5. No child between the ages of twelve and fifteen years shall be employed in any manufacturing, mechanical or mercantile establishment, or by any telegraph or telephone company in this State, except during the vacations of the public schools of the city, 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 one of this chapter, 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 or city 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.

SEC. 6. No child between the ages of twelve and fifteen years shall be so employed who does not present a certificate made by or under the direction of the school committee of the city or town in which such child resides, of his compliance with the requirements of section 5 of this chapter; and said certificate shall also give the place and date of birth of such child as nearly accurate as may be; and every owner, superintendent or overseer, of any establishment or company employing any such child shall keep such certificate on file so long as such child is employed therein. The form of said certificate shall be furnished by the secretary of the state board of education.

SEC. 7. 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.

SEC. 8. The truant-officers shall, at least once in every school term, and as often as the school committee require, visit the establishments or companies employing such children in their respective towns and cities, and ascertain whether the provisions of the three next preceding sections hereof are duly observed, and report all violations thereof to the school committee.

SEC. 9. The truant-officers shall demand the names of the children under fifteen years of age employed in such establishments or companies in their respective towns and cities, and shall require the certificates of age and school attendance,

prescribed in section 6 of this chapter, to be produced for their inspection; and a refusal to produce such certificates shall be punished by a fine not exceeding ten dollars.

SEC. 10. 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.

CHAPTER 66.-College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.

SEC. 1. The present board of managers of the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, and their successors, for the terms for which they have been or for which they hereafter may be appointed or elected as such managers, shall continue to be a body politic and corporate for the purpose of continuing and maintaining said college corporation as a college where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life, as provided in the act of the Congress of the United States approved July 2, 1862, entitled "An act donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts,” and for the purpose of continuing and maintaining an agricultural experiment station as a department of said college under and in accordance with, and to carry out the purposes of, the act of Congress approved March 2, 1887, entitled "An act to establish agricultural experiment stations in connection with the colleges established in the several States under the provisions of an act approved July 2, 1862, and of the acts supplementary thereto," by the said name of Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts," with all the powers and privileges, and subject to all the duties and liabilities set forth in chapter one hundred seventy-seven. CHAPTER 68.-Factories and workshops-Inspection, employment of children, etc.

SEC. 1. No child under twelve years of age shall be employed in any factory, manufacturing or mercantile establishment, within this State. It shall be the duty of every person, firm or corporation employing children, to keep a register in which shall be recorded the name, birthplace, age and place of residence of every person employed under the age of sixteen years; and said register shall be produced for inspection on demand by either of the inspectors appointed under this chapter.

SEC. 2. No person, firm or corporation employing less than five persons who are women or children shall be deemed a factory, manufacturing or mercantile establishment within the meaning of this chapter.

SEC. 3. The governor shall, between the fifteenth and thirtieth days of June, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, and between the fifteenth and thirtieth days of June in every third year thereafter, appoint two factory inspectors, one of whom shall be a woman, whose term of office shall be three years from date of their appointment and until their successors shall qualify. They shall at all times be subject to removal by the governor for neglect of duty or malfeasance in the discharge of duty; and, in case of removal as aforesaid, or of vacancies in said offices from any cause, the governor shall appoint successors to fill such vacancies for the unexpired term of said office. The said inspectors shall be empowered to visit and inspect, at all reasonable hours, and as often as practicable, the factories, workshops and other establishments in the State employing women or children, and shall report to the General Assembly of this State at its January session in each year, including in said report the names of the factories. the number of such hands employed, and the number of hours' work performed each week. It shall also be the duty of said inspectors to enforce the provisions of this chapter, and to prosecute all violations of the same before any court of competent jurisdiction in the State. The said inspectors shall devote their whole time and attention to the duties of their respective offices. In case of any conflict of authority between the said inspectors, either of them may apply for instructions to the governor, whose decision of the controversy, after hearing the statement of each inspector and making such further investigation of the circumstances as he may deem necessary, shall be final.

SEC. 4. All necessary expenses incurred by such inspectors in the discharge of their duties shall be paid from the funds of the State, upon the presentation of proper vouchers for the same, approved by the governor: Provided, That not