stitute teachers shall, so long as residents of said district, continue as such substitute until removed for immorality, misconduct or lack of proficiency.

Sec. 21. Every person having under his control a child or children between the ages of seven and fifteen years, residing in Parkersburg independent school district, shall cause such child or children to attend public school in said district and such attendance shall begin at the beginning, and shall be continued through the school year thereof, and for every neglect of such duty the person offending shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined two dollars for the first offense and five dollars for each subsequent offense together with the costs of prosecution and, in the discretion of the court or justice, be required to enter into a bond in the penal sum of fifty dollars, with security to be approved of by the court or the justice, conditioned that the person so convicted will cause such child or children to attend public school in accordance with the provisions of this act. Such bonds shall be made payable to the board of education of Parkersburg district and any amount which may be recovered thereon, shall be placed to the credit of the building fund of said district. Any failure to give such bond in a manner and within the time prescribed, shall be a misdemeanor and punished by a fine of not less than one dollar nor more than five dollars, and the cost of prosecution.

An offense, as intended and provided by this act, shall consist in the failure of such persons to send to school any such child or children for more than one day in any one week in which the schools are in session unless the attendance of such child or children be prevented by personal sickness or other reasonable excuse; provided, that if such child or children shall have graduated from the grammar grades, or if such child or children have been otherwise instructed for a like period of time in the branches of learning required by law to be taught in public schools, or have already acquired such branches, or if, in the opinion of the superintendent of said school district the mental or physical condition of such child or children is such as to render such attendance inexpedient or impracticable, such penalty shall not be incurred.

Any fine so collected shall be paid to the secretary of the board of education who shall pay same to the sheriff and take his receipt

therefor, and the sheriff shall deposit same in the proper account to the credit of the building fund of said district.

If the person against whom such proceedings shall be instituted shall satisfactorily prove in the course of such proceedings that he has made all proper efforts to compel such child or children to attend a school as hereinbefore provided, and that because of the disobedience of such child he has been unable to do so, such facts shall constitute a defense to such proceedings. Thereupon the attendance officer shall take such proper proceedings before the proper court to have such child judged incorrigible and committed to the state reform school at Pruntytown or the girls' industrial home at Salem.

To aid in the enforcement of this act the board of education shall appoint and employ one or more attendance officers whose compensation and term of office shall be fixed by the board. The attendance officer shall be vested with police powers, the authority to serve warrants, and shall have authority to enter workshops, factories, stores and all other places where children shall be employed, and do whatever may be necessary in the way of investigation or otherwise, to enforce this act. The attendance officer shall have full power, without warrant, to apprehend any child between the ages of seven and fifteen years who shall have been reported to him in writing by the superintendent or principal, and to place such child in a public school which he should have attended or in which he should have been, or has been enrolled, or to place such child, at the expense of the parent, guardian or other person having such child under his control in such private school as the parents, guardian or other person having such child under his control may select. In case such parent, guardian or other person having such child under his control shall fail or refuse, immediately, upon being applied to, to select such private school, then the said attendance officer shall at once place such child in the public school of the district in which such child resides.

Any person who induces or attempts to induce any such child unlawfully to absent himself from school, or harbors or employs such child unlawfully absent from school while the school in the district in which the child lives is in session, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine of twenty-five dollars, and may be imprisoned not to exceed ten days in jail.

The truant officer shall institute proceedings against any person

or persons violating this act, and perform such other offices as the superintendent or the board of education may deem necessary to preserve the morals and secure the good conduct of any school child or children, and to enforce this act.

Such attendance officer shall keep a record of his transactions for the inspection and information of the superintendent or the board of education, and shall make such reports to the superintendent or to the board, throughout the school year, as he or it may require and the superintendent shall make such reports to the board of education as it may require. The principals, and teachers of all schools, public, private, or otherwise, in such school district, shall report to the board of education the names, ages, and residences of all pupils of compulsory age in attendance at their respective schools, together with such other facts as the board of education may require to facilitate the carrying out of the provisions of this act, and said board of education shall furnish blanks for such purposes and such reports shall be made at such time or times as the said board of education shall prescribe by rules to be adopted by it. Such principals and teachers shall also report to the proper attendance officer or to the superintendent of schools of the said school district, all cases of truancy and unlawful absence in their respective schools as soon as practicable after such truancy or absence.

If any person shall fail to comply with the provisions of this section requiring reports to be made as aforesaid, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and punished by a fine of five dollars and the costs of prosecution. Any fine so collected shall be paid the secretary of the board of education and by him paid to the sheriff, who shall receipt to him therefor, deposit same in the proper account and place it to the credit of the building fund of the district. If to any prosecution instituted under the provisions of this act, a satisfactory defense shall be made, so that the proceedings shall be dismissed or the defendant shall be judged not guilty, the costs of any such prosecution shall then be paid by the board of education of Parkersburg district out of the funds under its control.

When so directed by the superintendent or the board of education or when it otherwise comes to the notice of any attendance officer of said school district, such officer shall examine into any case of truancy or unexplained absence of the school children of

compulsory age in said school district. When any child or children are not attending school without lawful excuse and in violation of the provisions of this act, the attendance officer shall notify in writing, the person having control of such child or children to send same to some school. But the service of such notice shall not be an essential preliminary to prosecution under the provisions of this act. Any court or justice of the peace of Wood county shall have jurisdiction over and take cognizance of all offenses provided by this act.

Sec. 22. All provisions of the general school law of this statə which are inconsistent or in conflict with any of the provisions of this act shall be void within said district; otherwise to have full force and effect.

Sec. 23. The president and members of the board of education now in office shall remain in office during their respective terms for which they were elected.

Sec. 24. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed.

(House Bill No. 27.)

CHAPTER 76.

AN ACT to amend chapter one hundred and forty-five of the annotated code of West Virginia by adding section thirty-four thereto, relating to the unlawful giving of checks and drafts for value, and fixing the punishment therefor.

[Passed February 24, 1911. In effect ninety days from passage. Governor February 25, 1911.]

Approved by the

the check, he is guilty of a misdemeanor if under twenty dollarsif twenty dollars or over a felony; penalty.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

That chapter one hundred and forty-five of the annotated code of West Virginia be amended by adding section thirty-four thereto.

Sec. 34. If any person make, issue and deliver to another for value any check or draft on any bank, and thereby obtain from such other any credit, money, goods or other property of value,

and have no funds, or insufficient funds, on deposit to his credit in said bank with which such draft or check may be paid, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, if the amount of such check or draft be under twenty dollars, and upon conviction thereof be fined not exceeding one hundred dollars and confined in the county jail not less than one day nor more than thirty days, and if the amount of such check or draft be twenty dollars or over he shall be guilty of a felony and confined in the penitentiary not less than one year nor more than two years, and the drawer of such check or draft shall be prosecuted in the county in which he delivers the same. Provided, however, that if the person who makes, issues and delivers any such check shall, within twenty days from the time he receives actual notice, verbal or written, of the protest of such check, pay the same, he shall not be prosecuted under this section, and any prosecution that may have been instituted within the time above mentioned, shall, if payment of said check be made as aforesaid, be dismissed at the cost of defendant.

Justices of the peace shall have jurisdiction to try misdemeanors hereunder. The following form of indictment shall be deemed sufficient:

State of West Virginia,

In the

County, ss:

.Court of said County:

The Grand Jurors of the State of West Virginia, in and for the body of the county of

upon their oaths present that within one year last past, in the county aforesaid, did unlawfully and feloniously (if for a felony, or "did unlawfully," if for a misdemeanor) issue and deliver for value, his certain check (or draft)

unto

.....

of the words and figures as follows: (Here copy) when he, the said ... had insufficient funds on deposit with ...with which to pay the same;

the said bank of.

against the peace and dignity of the State.

(House Bill No. 252.)

CHAPTER 77.

AN ACT to amend and re-enact section thirty-three of chapter ten of the acts of the legislature of West Virginia of one