years, and the female be not an inmate of such hospital for the insane or of such institution, the subsequent marriage of the parties, with the written consent of both the parents if living or the living parent or guardian of the female, may be pleaded in bar of a prosecution for the offense. CHILD LABOR. Chap. 204, Acts of 1918. An act to amend and re-enact chapter 201 of the Acts of 1908, regulating the employment of children in certain employments, approved March 13, 1908, as amended by chapter 339 of the Acts of 1914, Approved March 27, 1914. Approved March 14, 1918. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the Act of Assembly regulating the employment of children in certain employments, approved March 13th, 1908, as amended and re-enacted by an act approved March 27th, 1914, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows: On and after July first, nineteen hundred and eighteen, no child under the age of fourteen years shall be employed, permitted or suffered to work in any factory, workshop, cannery, mercantile establishment, laundry, bakery, brick or lumber yard, theater or place of amusement, nor shall any child under the age of sixteen years be employed in any mine or quarry. 2. No child under the age of sixteen years shall be employed, permitted or suffered to work in, about or in connection with an establishment or occupation named in section one (1) for more than six days in any one week; (2) nor more than ten hours in any one day; (3) nor before the hour of six o'clock in the morning nor after the hour of seven o'clock in the evening. 3. No child under sixteen years of age shall be employed, permitted or suffered to work in, about or in connection with any establishment or occupation named in section one unless the person, firm or corporation employing such child procures and keeps on file and accessible to any inspector of factories, or other authorized inspector or officer charged with the enforcement of this act, the employment certificate as hereinafter provided, issued to said child; and keep two complete lists of the names, together with the ages of all children under sixteen years of age employed in or for such establishment or in such occupation, one on file and one conspicuously posted near the principal entrance of the place or establishment in which such children are employed. On termination of the employment of a child whose employment certificate is on file, such certificate shall be returned by the employer within two days to the official who issued the same with a statement of the reasons for the termination of said employment. Such employment certificate shall be issued only by a notary public, in the city, town or village in which the child is to be employed, upon the application in person of the parent or guardian or custodian of the child desiring such employment. The person authorized to issue an employment certificate shall not issue such certificate until he has 1 ceived, examined, approved and filed evidence of age showing that the child is fourteen years old or upward, which shall consist of one of the following proofs of age, and shall be required in the order herein designated as follows: (a) A birth certificate or attested transcript thereof issued by a registrar of vital statistics or other officer charged with the duty of recording births. (b) A record of baptism or a certificate or attested transcript thereof showing the date of birth and place of baptism of such child. (c) A bona fide contemporary record of the date and place of the child's birth kept in the Bible in which the record of births in the family are preserved, or other documentary evidence satisfactory to the Commissioner of Labor or such person as he may designate, such as a passport showing the age of the child, a certificate of arrival in the United States, issued by the United States immigration officers and showing the age of the child, or a life insurance policy; provided that such other satisfactory documentary evidence has been in existence at least one year prior to the time it is offered in evidence; and provided, further, that a school record or a parent's, guardian's, or custodian's affidavit, or other written statement of age shall not be accepted except as specified in paragraph (d). (d) A certificate signed by a public-health physician or a public school physician, specifying what, in the opinion of such physician, is the physical age of the child; such certificate shall show the height and weight of the child and other facts concerning its physical development revealed by such examination and upon which the opinion of the physician as to the physical age of the child is based. A parent's, guardian's, or custodian's certificate as to the age of the child and a record of age as given on the register of the school which the child first attended or in the school census, if obtainable, shall be submitted with the physician's certificate showing physical age. The officer issuing the age certificate for a child shall require the evidence of age specified in sub-division (a) in preference to that specified in any subsequent sub-division and shall not accept the evidence of age permitted by any subsequent sub-division unless he shall receive and file evidence that the evidence of age required by the preceding subdivision or sub-divisions cannot be obtained. 4. In cities having a population of five thousand or more, according to the census of nineteen hundred and ten, no boy under the age of fourteen years, and no girl under the age of eighteen years shall be employed, permitted or suffered to work as messenger for a telegraph, telephone or messenger company, in the distribution, transmission or delivery of goods or messages, and no boy under eighteen years of age, and no girl under twenty-one years of age, shall be so employed, permitted or suffered to work between the hours of ten o'clock in the evening and five o'clock in the morning. 5. No boy under ten years of age and no girl under sixteen years of age shall, in any city in this State of five thousand population or more, distribute, sell, expose, or offer for sale, newspapers, magazines, or other periodicals in any street or public place. Any child violating the provisions of this section shall be deemed delinquent and, on complaint of any person, may be arrested and brought before a court of competent jurisdiction, which shall have the authority to commit or otherwise deal with such child in accordance with the provisions of the law in regard to delinquent children. 6. Any owner, superintendent, overseer, foreman or manager, who shall knowingly employ, or permit any child to be employed contrary to the provisions of this act, in any factory, workshop, mercantile establishment, laundry, mine, bakery, brick or lumber yard, with which he is connected, or any parent or guardian, who allows any such employment of his child or ward, in these occupations or in selling newspapers as in section 5, or any notary public who shall issue a certificate, as provided in section three, in violation of the provisions of said section, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction of such offense, shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than one hundred dollars for each offense. But nothing in this act shall prevent a parent from working his or her child in any factory, workshop, mercantile establishment or laundry, or other place owned or operated by said parent. Any employment contrary to the provisions of this act shall be prima facie evidence of guilt, both as to the employer and the parent or guardian of the child so employed; provided, that nothing contained in this act shall apply to mercantile establishments in towns of less than two thousand inhabitants or in country districts. 7. All acts and parts of acts that are or may be in conflict with the operation of this act on and after July the first, nineteen hundred and eighteen, are. to that extent hereby repealed, said repeal to take effect as of July first, nineteen hundred and eighteen. See also Chap. 414, Acts of 1918. COMPULSORY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE LAW. Chapter 412, Acts of 1918. An act to provide (in certain cases) for the compulsory attendance of children betwen the ages of eight and twelve years upon the public schools of Virginia, and to repeal an act entitled "An act to provide (in certain cases) for the compulsory attendance of children between the ages of eight and twelve years upon the public schools of Virginia, and providing penalties for failure, and designating the manner of collecting such penalties. Approved March 14, 1908." 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That every parent, guardian or other person having charge or control of any child between the ages of eight and twelve years, shall be required to send such child to a public school of this Commonwealth for at least sixteen weeks in each school year, which attendance shall commence at the beginning of the school term, unless otherwise ordered by the district school board, and shall be as nearly continuous and consecutive as con ditions will permit, provided, however, that this act shall not apply in the case of any child weak in body or mind, able to read and write or attending a private school, or living more than two miles by the usually traveled route from the nearest public school, or more than one mile from the line of an established public free wagon route, or excused for cause by the district school trustees. 2. Each district school board in the State shall, within fifteen days after the schools open in the fall, ascertain the condition of all children between the ages of eight and twelve who are not in attendance upon any public school, and shall report all violations of this act to the division superintendent, who shall at once proceed to prosecute each and every offence. 3. In all cases of non-enrollment and non-attendance reported to him, the division superintendent shall make a careful investigation of. the facts in the case, and where no valid reason for non-enrollment and non-attendance is found, he shall give written notice to the parent, guardians, or other person having control of the child, and in the event of the absence of the parent, or guardian or other person having control of the child from his or her usual place of residence, the division superintendent shall leave a copy of the notice with some person over twelve years of age residing at the usual place of residence of such parent, guardian, or other person having control of such child with instructions to hand such notice to such parent, guardian, or other person having control of such child, which notice shall require the attendance of such child at the school therein named, within seven days from the date of said notice. 4. If within seven days from the date of the service of the notice, as aforesaid, the parent, guardian, or other person having control of such child does not comply with the provisions of this act, then the division superintendent shall make complaint in the name of the Commonwealth of Virginia before a justice of the peace or a police justice of the district or city in which such parent, guardian, or other person having control of such child resides, or complaint may be made in the corporation or circuit court of the city or county in which such parent, guardian, or other person having control of such child resides, which officers and courts are hereby clothed with jurisdiction over all offences and the proceedings under this act with full power to hear and try all complaints, impose fines, penalties and fully execute the provisions of this act. 5. Any parent, guardian, or other person who fails to comply with the provisions of this act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty dollars for each offence. Such fine shall be collected as other fines imposed in the name of the Commonwealth of Virginia are collected. 6. The clerk of the district school board in each district shall report to the division superintendent every offence against the provisions of this act when a member of the district school board, or any citizen of the district in which the offending party resides files with him an affidavit setting forth the facts constituting the offence and if he neglect to do so within fifteen days after such affidavit is filed, he shall be liable to a fine of not less than five nor more than ten dollars for each case of such neglect, to be collected in the name of the Commonwealth before any court of competent jurisdiction by any person feeling aggrieved thereby. 7. Two weeks' attendance at half time or night school shall be considered within the meaning of this act equivalent to an attendance of one week at a day school. 8. The school board of any city shall have the right, in its discretion, to appoint a truant or attendance officer to perform in said city the duties required of the clerk of the district school board, and division superintendent in the counties, which officer so appointed shall in his city, have all of the rights and perform all of the duties prescribed for the clerk of the district school board and division superintendent in counties, as aforesaid; and in case no truant or attendance officer is appointed in any city, as aforesaid, the rights and duties prescribed for the clerk of the district school board and division superintendent in counties shall in such cities devolve upon and be performed by the clerk of the city school board and division superintendent. 9. Be it further enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That an act entitled "An act to provide (in certain cases) for the compulsory attendance of children between the ages of eight and twelve years upon the public schools of Virginia, and providing penalties for such failure and designating the manner of collecting such penalties, approved March fourteenth, nineteen hundred and eight, be and the same is hereby repealed. NON-SUPPORT LAW. Chap. 416, Acts of 1918. An act making it a misdemeanor for a husband to desert or neglect his wife or for a parent to desert or neglect his children; prescribing the penalty therefor, and making provision for the apprehension and punishment of persons charged with or convicted of non-support; providing for the taking of recognizances, and for the forfeiture and enforcement of the same; providing for the appointment of probation officers, prescribing their duties and powers, and repealing certain acts. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That any husband who shall, without just cause, desert or wilfully neglect or refuse to provide for the support and maintenance of his wife; and any parent who shall desert or wilfully neglect or refuse to provide for the support and maintenance of his or her male child under the age of sixteen years, female child under the age of seventeen years, or child of either sex under the age of twenty-one who is crippled or otherwise incapacitated for earning a living (he, she or they being then and there in destitute or necessitous circumstances), shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not exceeding five hundred dollars, or in the case of a husband or father be sentened to the |