Wyoming.-Revised Statutes of 1887: Sections 1469, 1486 to 1494, inclusive, 1502, 1506, 1517 to 1523, inclusive, 1531, 1536, and 1540. Laws of 1888: Chapter 26.

APPRENTICE LAWS.

NEW YORK REVISED STATUTES OF 1881.

APPRENTICES.

[Page 2348.]

SECTION 1. Every male infant, and every unmarried female under the age of eighteen years, with the consent of the persons or officers hereinafter mentioned, may of his or her own free will, bind himself or herself, in writing, to serve as clerk, apprentice or servant in any profession, trade or employment; if a male, until the age of twenty one years, and if a female, until the age of eighteen years, or for any shorter time; and such binding shall be as valid and effectual, as if such infant was of full age at the time of making such engagement.

SECTION 2. Such consent shall be given

(1) By the father of the infant. If he be dead, or be not in a legal capacity to give his consent, or if he shall have abandoned and neglected to provide for his family, and such fact be certified by a justice of the peace of the town, and indorsed on the indenture, then,

(2) By the mother. If the mother be dead, or be not in a legal capacity to give such consent, or refuse, then,

(3) By the guardian of such infant duly appointed. If such infant have no parent living, or none in a legal capacity to give consent, and there be no guardian, then,

(4) By the overseers of the poor, or any two justices of the peace of the town, or any judge of the county courts of the county, where such infant shall reside. SECTION 3. Such consent shall be signified in writing, by the person entitled to give the same, by a certificate at the end of, or endorsed upon, the indentures, and not otherwise.

SECTION 4. The executors of any last will of a father, who shall be directed in such will to bring up his child to some trade or calling, may bind such child to service, as a clerk or apprentice, in like manner as the father might have done, if living.

SECTION 5. The county superintendents of the poor, in the several counties, may bind out any child, under the ages above specified, who shall be sent to any county poorhouse, or who is or shall become chargeable, or whose parent or parents are or shall become chargeable, to such county, to be clerks, apprentices or servants, until such child, if a male, shall be twenty-one years old, or, if a female, shall be eighteeen years old; which binding shall be as effectual, as if such child had bound himself with the consent of his father.

SECTION 6. The overseers of the poor of any town or city, may, in like manner, bind out any such child, who, or whose parent or parents, shall become chargeable to such town or city, or who shall have been sent to any poorhouse, other than a county poorhouse, with the consent in writing, of any two justices of the peace of the town, or of the mayor, recorder and aldermen of any city, or of any two of them.

SECTION 7. No child of an Indian woman shall be bound as an apprentice, under the provisions of this title, except in the presence and with the consent of a justice of the peace; a certificate of which consent signed by the justice, shall be filed with the clerk of the town in which the indenture of apprenticeship shall be executed.

SECTION 8. The age of every infant so bound shall be inserted in the indentures, and shall be taken to be the true age, without further proof thereof; and whenever any public officers are authorized to execute any indentures, or their consent is required to the validity of the same, it shall be their duty to inform themselves fully, of the infant's age.

SECTION 9. Every sum of money paid or agreed for, with, or in relation to the binding out of any clerk or apprentice, shall be inserted in the indentures.

SECTION 10. Whenever any child shall be bound out by the county superintendents of the poor of any county, or by the overseers of the poor of any city or town, the indentures shall contain an agreement on the part of the person to whom such child shall be bound, that he will cause such child to be instructed to read and write, and if a male, will cause him to be instructed in the general rules of arithmetic; and every such indenture shall also contain an agreement, that the master will give to such apprentice, at the expiration of his or her ser fice a new Bible.

SECTION 11. The counterpart of any indentures executed by the county superintendents of the poor, shall be by them deposited in the office of the clerk of the county; and the counterpart of such indentures executed by any overseers of the poor, shall be by them deposited in the office of the clerk of their city or

town.

SECTION 12. Any person coming from any foreign country beyond sea, may bind himself to service, if an infant, until he attain the age of twenty-one years, or for a shorter term. Such contract for service, if made for the purpose of raising money to pay his passage, or for the payment of such passage, may be for the term of one year, although such term may extend beyond the time when such person will be of full age; but it shall in no case be for a longer term.

SECTION 13. No contract made under the last section, shall bind the servant, unless it be acknowledged by him before some mayor, recorder, or alderman of a city, or before some justice of the peace; nor, unless a certificate of such acknowledgment, and that the same was made freely, on a private examination, be indorsed upon such contract.

SECTION 14. The contracts specified in the last two sections, may be assigned by the master, by an instrument in writing indorsed thereon, executed in the presence of two witnesses; if such assignment be approved of, in writing, by any magistrate mentioned in the preceding section, and such approbation shall be also indorsed on the contract.

(NOTE.-See section 410 of chapter 410 of the acts of 1882, the New York consolidation act.)

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APPRENTICES AND EMPLOYERS.

(Page 2350.)

SECTION 1. * * It shall not be lawful for any person or persons in this State to employ or take as an apprentice any minor person to learn the art or mystery of any trade or craft without first having obtained the consent of such person's legal guardian or guardians; nor shall any minor person be taken as an apprentice aforesaid unless an agreement or indenture be drawn up in writing,

* and duly executed under seal by the person or persons employing said apprentice, and also by the parents or parent, if any be living, or by the guardian or guardians of said apprentice, and likewise by said minor person so becoming an apprentice.

SECTION 2. Said agreement or indenture * * shall contain the following covenants and provisions:

(1) That said minor person shall be bound to serve his employer or employers for a term of not less than three nor more than five years.

(2) That said minor person so indentured shall not leave his said employer or employers during the term for which he shall be indentured, and if any said apprentice so indentured as aforesaid shall leave his said employer or employers, except as hereinafter provided, the said employer or employers may compel the return of the said apprentice under the penalties of this act.

(3) That said employer or employers shall covenant and agree in said indenture to provide at all times during the continuance of the same suitable and proper board, lodging, and medical attendance for said apprentice, and said employer or employers shall also further covenant and agree to teach or cause to be carefully and skillfully taught to his or their said apprentice every branch of his or their business to which said apprentice may be indentured, and said employer or employers shall be further bound, at the expiration of said apprenticeship, to give to said apprentice a certificate in writing, stating that said apprentice has served a full term of apprenticeship of not less than three or more than five years, at such trade or craft as may be specified in said indenture.

SECTION 3. (a) Any person or persons taking an apprentice without complying with the provisions of this act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof before any magistrate or court having jurisdiction, held in the county in which the business of said employer or employers may be conducted, shall be subject to a fine of not less than five hundred dollars,

*

*

*

It shall be the duty of the factory inspector and the deputy factory inspectors to see to it that the duties and obligations of employers to their apprentices are observed and enforced, to enforce this act, and to prosecute such employers for a failure to perform such duties and obligations, or any violation of this act. SECTION 4. Any and all indentures made under and in pursuance of the provisions of this act shall not be canceled or annulled before the expiration of the term of said indentures, except in case of death; or by the order of or judgment

a As amended by chapter 437, acts of 1888.

of the county or supreme court of this State for good cause, and any apprentice so indentured who shall leave his employer or employers without his or their consent or without sufficient cause, and shall refuse to return, may be arrested upon the complaint of said employer or employers, and taken before any magistrate having jurisdiction of misdemeanors, who may cancel said indentures, and on conviction commit said apprentice to the house of correction, house of refuge, or county jail, in and for said county, for such length of time as such magistrate may deem just, or until said apprentice shall have attained the age of twentyone years, and in case said apprentice so indentured shall wilfully neglect or refuse to perform his portion of the contract as specified in said indentures, then said indenture may be canceled in the manner aforesaid, and said apprentice so violating said indentures shall forfeit all back pay and all claims against said employer or employers, and said indentures shall be canceled.

SECTION 5. Should any employer or employers neglect or refuse to teach, or cause to be taught to said apprentice the art or mystery of the trade or craft to which said apprentice has been indentured, or fail at any time to provide suitable and proper board, lodging, and medical attendance, said apprentice individually, or his parent or parents, guardian or guardians, may bring an action against such employer or employers, to recover damages sustained by reason of said neglect or refusal; and, if proved to the satisfaction of the court, said court shall direct said indentures to be canceled, and may impose a fine on said employer or employers, not exceeding one thousand and not less than one hundred dollars, and said fine shall be collected and paid over to said apprentice or his parent or guardian for his sole use and benefit.

SECTION 6. Any indentures made and executed, wherein parts conflict with or are not in accordance with the provisions of this act, shall be invalid and without any binding effect.

BINDING OUT OF DESTITUTE CHILDREN BY SOCIETIES, ETC.

(Page 2351.)

SECTION 1. Every society or association incorporated under the laws of the State for the purpose of taking care of and protecting destitute infant minor children may, with the consent of any justice of the supreme court, or of the county judge in the county wherein such society or association may be situated, such consent to be expressed in writing on the indentures, bind out any destitute minor child or children which have been in their care and keeping for three months, of the age of eight years and upwards, by indenture, to serve as clerk, apprentice or servant in any profession, trade or employment; if a male, for a period which shall not be beyond his twenty-first year, and if a female, for a perid which shall not be beyond her eighteenth year.

SECTION 2. Such indenture shall be executed under seal and signed by such officer of such society or association as shall be authorized by the directors or trustees of such society or association to sign such indenture, and shall be signed also by the person employing such apprentice or minor child.

SECTION 3. The age of every infant so bound and the sum of money paid or agreed for, with, or in relation to the binding out of such minor child shall be inserted in the indenture, and such age shall be taken prima facie to be the true age without further proof thereof.

SECTION 4. The indenture shall contain an agreement on the part of the person to whom such child shall be bound, that he will cause such child to be instructed to read and write, and if a male, shall cause him to be instructed in the general rules of arithmetic, and shall contain such other provisions for the benefit of such infant as shall be deemed proper by any of the officers or trustees of said society or association, and which shall be agreed to by such person receiving such infant.

SECTION 5. Should such employer fail at any time to provide suitable and proper board, lodging and medical attendance, or shall fail to perform any of the provisions of said indenture on his part, said apprentice, individually, or any person on his behalf, may bring an action against said employer to recover damages sustained by reason of such failure; and if proved to the satisfaction of the court, and the court shall deem it a proper case, the court shall direct said indentures to be canceled, and may impose a judgment upon such employer not exceeding one thousand dollars and not less than one hundred dollars, and said judgment shall be collected and paid over to said society or association, which formerly had the custody of such child, to be used for the benefit of such minor in such manner as the trustees thereof shall direct.

GENERAL PROVISIONS AS TO APPRENTICES.

(Page 2352.)

SECTION 26. No indenture or contract for the service of any apprentice shall be valid as against the person whose services may be claimed, unless made in the manner before prescribed in this title.

SECTION 27. The county superintendents of the poor and the overseers of the poor of the respective cities or towns shall be the guardians of every person bound or held in service, in their respective cities or towns, to take care that the terms of the contract of service be fulfilled, and that such person be properly used; and it is hereby made their special duty to inquire into the treatment of every such person, and redress any grievance in the manner prescribed by law. SECTION 28. If any person lawfully bound to service under either of the preceding articles of this title, shall wilfully absent himself from such service without the leave of his master, he shall be compelled to serve double the time of such absence, unless he shall otherwise make satisfaction for the loss and injury sustained by such absence; but such additional term of service shall not extend beyond three years, next after the end of the original term of service. SECTION 29. If any such person shall refuse to serve according to the provisions of this title, or the terms of his contract or indentures, his master may apply to any justice of the peace of the county, or to the mayor, recorder, or any alderman of the city, where he shall reside, who shall be authorized by warrant or otherwise, to send for the person so refusing, and if such refusal be persisted in, to commit such person, by warrant, to the bridewell, house of correction, or common jail of the city or county, there to remain until such person will consent to serve according to law.

SECTION 39. No person shall accept from any journeyman or apprentice, any contract or agreement, nor cause him to be bound by oath or otherwise, that after his term of service expired, such journeyman or apprentice shall not set up his trade, profession or employment, in any particular place, shop, house or cellar; nor shall any person exact from any journeyman or apprentice, after his term of service expired, any money or other thing, for using and exercising his trade, profession or employment, in any place.

SECTION 40. Every security given contrary to the provisions contained in the last section, shall be void; any money paid, or valuable thing delivered, for the consideration, in part or in whole, of any such agreement or exaction, may be recovered back by the person paying the same, with interest; and every person accepting such agreement, causing such obligation to be entered into, or exacting money or other thing as aforesaid, shall forfeit one hundred dollars, to the apprentice or journeyman from whom the same shall have been received. SECTION 43. The provisions of this title shall apply as well to mistresses, female guardians, apprentices and wards, respectively, as to masters, male guardians, apprentices and wards.

DIGEST OF APPRENTICE LAWS.

PERSONS WHO MAY BE BOUND OUT.

[See notes, pp. 33-40.]

The following classes of persons may be bound out as apprentices (under certain conditions and regulations) in the States and Territories noted below. In the statutes of the States and Territories not named no apprentice laws have been found:

Minors.-In Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin.

Persons of full age.-In Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana.

NOTES.

The particulars in regard to the binding out of apprentices in the different States and Territories are as follows:

MINORS.

Alabama.-Any parent may bind out a minor child, and the probate judge of a county may bind out the children of any person unable to provide for their support.

H. Rep. 1960-3

Arkansas.-A minor may be bound out by the father, by the guardian, if an orphan without sufficient estate for its maintenance, and by the mother if the father is dead and no guardian has been appointed. In any case the indentures must be approved by the judge of the county court.

California.-A minor of fourteen years of age or over can be bound out by the father, by the mother or guardian if the father is dead, incompetent, has wilfully abandoned his family for one year without making suitable provision for their support, or has become a habitual drunkard, vagrant, etc., by the judge of the superior court, if poor, homeless, chargeable to the county, or an outcast, he has no visible means of obtaining an honest livelihood, and by an executor who is directed in the last will of the father to bring up the child to some trade or calling. Minors can also bind themselves if they have no parents competent to act and no guardians. The consent of the minor is necessary in all cases and must be expressed in the indentures and testified to by his signing the same. Colorado-A minor can be bound out by the father, or by the mother or guardian, if the father is dead, incompetent, has wilfully abandoned his family for six months without making suitable provision for their support, or has become an habitual drunkard. In the above cases the consent of the minor, who is over fourteen years of age, is necessary and must be expressed in the indentures and testified to by his signing the same. A minor can also be bound out by a superintendent of the poor of the county if either the minor or its parents are, or may be, chargeable to the county or shall beg for alms, if the parents are poor and the father an habitual drunkard, and if the father is dead and the mother is of a bad character or suffers the minor to grow up in idleness, etc. A minor can bind himself if he has no parents competent to act and no guardian.

Connecticut.-A minor can be bound out by the father or guardian, in which case the consent of a minor who is over 14 years of age is necessary and must be expressed in the indentures and testified to by his signing the same. The selectmen of a town may, with the consent of a justice of the peace, bind out the children of any person who, having had relief from said town, mis-spend their time and shall neglect to employ them in some honest calling, and of any person who does not provide competently for his children whereby they are exposed to want, also any poor children who live idly or are exposed to want and there are none to take care of them. The trustees of the State reform school may, with the consent of the boy or his parents or guardian, bind out any boy who is committed to said school during his minority. The directors of the industrial school for girls may bind out any girl committed to said school. The overseers of an Indian tribe may, with the consent of two justices of the peace, bind out children of said tribe who are poor, idle, and unprovided for. A minor when of the age of 14 may, with the consent of the selectmen of his town, bind himself if he has no father or guardian within the State.

Delaware.—A minor may be bound out by the father, by the guardian, if there be no father residing in the State, by the mother if no father residing in the State and there is no guardian, by any two trustees of the poor if minor is living in the almshouse, and by any two justices of the peace acting together if minor has no parents residing in the State and has not sufficient property for his maintenance, or if his parents are not able to maintain and bring him up to industry and suitable employment. A minor when of the age of 14 may also bind himself if he has no parents and no guardian residing in the State, and in this case the consent of a justice of the peace is necessary.

Florida. A minor may be bound out by any parent or by a guardian. If said minor is under 16 years of age the approval of the judge of the county court of the county of which said parent or guardian is a resident is necessary, and if said minor is of the age of 16 or over, his own assent, evidenced by his signature to the indentures, is required. Poor orphans, without estates sufficient for their maintenance out of their profits, shall be bound out by order of the judge of the county court. When a person having control of a child under 16 years of age is adjudged a vagrant said child shall be bound out by the court rendering the judgment. When a person applies to be placed on the pauper list of a county the board of county commissioners, in granting said application, may in their discretion require that the children of such applicant under the age of 16 be bound out. When a child under the age of 16 is abandoned by the father who fails to provide him with support and maintenance he may be bound out by the judge of the county court, but not unless with the assent of the mother, or unless she is unable or neglects to provide for its support and maintenance.

Georgia.-Minors may be bound out by their parents, and those whose parents are dead or residing out of the county and whose estates yield profits insufficient for support and maintenance, or those whose parents, from age, infirmity, or