the transaction of business, and any one of said committee shall have power to administer the oath of office to the officers elected.

SEC. 3. That the new county shall pay a pro rata share of the existing legal debts of the county from which it is taken, and there shall be set apart so much of the county taxes levied and collected on the property within said new county as shall be sufficient to speedily liquidate said existing debts, if any, and the said pro rata to be based upon the value of the property for each year of the existence of said debts, to be determined from the tax rolls of said county as made by the board of equalization.

SEC. 4. That the county of Brewster is hereby attached to the Thirtyfourth Judicial District for judicial purposes, to the Eleventh Congressional, Twenty-eighth Senatorial, and Eightieth Representative Districts for purposes of representation.

SEC. 5. Whereas, the County Commissioners Court of Presidio County is about to levy taxes for the present year, therefore an emergency exists, and an imperative public necessity requiring that the rule requiring that bills be read on three several days be suspended, and this act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage, and it is so enacted.

[NOTE. The foregoing act originated in the House, and passed the same by a vote of 93 yeas, no nays; and passed the Senate by a vote of 27 yeas, no nays.]

Approved, February 2, 1887.

AFFIDAVITS, OATHS, AND AFFIRMATIONS.

SEC. 1. By what officers oaths, etc., may be administered.

CHAP. 5.—[S. B. No. 21.] An Act to amend An Act to amend Article 4, Title 2, of the Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas, approved March 31, 1885, concerning the administration of affidavits, oaths, and affirmations.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas: That an act to amend An Act to amend Article 4, Title 2, of the Revised Civil Statutes of Texas, approved March 31, 1885, be so amended as to hereafter read as follows, to-wit: Article 4. All oaths, affidavits, or affirma tions necessary or required by law, may be administered, and a certificate of the fact given, by any judge or clerk of a court of record, justice of the peace, or by any notary public, within this State. Approved, February 5, 1887.

SPECIAL VENIRE.

SEC. 1. Manner of serving list of jurors on defendants.]

CHAP. 6.-[S. B. No. 12.] An Act to amend Article 617, Chapter Two, Code Criminal Procedure of Texas.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas: That Article 617, of Chapter 2, Code of Criminal Procedure, be amended so that the same shall hereafter read as follows:

Article 617. No defendant in a capital case shall be brought to trial until he has had one day's service of a copy of the names of persons summoned under a special venire facias, except where he waives the right, or is on bail; and when such defendant is on bail he shall not be brought to trial until after one day from the time the list of persons so summoned

shall have been returned to the clerk of the court in which said prosecution is pending; but the clerk shall furnish the defendant, or his counsel, a list of the persons so summoned, upon their application therefor. Approved, February 15, 1887.

VETERAN LAND CERTIFICATES.

SEC. 1. Repeals Chapter XLV, General Laws Seventeenth Legislature, approved March 15, 1881, granting certificates of 1280 acres to veterans, etc.

CHAP. 7.-[S. B. No. 36.] An Act to repeal Chapter Forty-five of the General Laws of the State of Texas passed by the Seventeenth Legislature of the State of Texas, and approved March 15th, A. D. 1881.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas: That Chapter 45 of the General Laws of the State passed by the Seventeenth Legislature of the State of Texas, and approved March 15, 1881, and known as the veteran 1280 acre land certificate act, be and the same is hereby repealed.

Approved, February 15, 1887.

RAILROADS.

SEO.

SEC.

1. Railway companies may abandon portions of 2. Emergency clause.

track.

CHAP. 8.-[S. B. No. 103.] An Act to authorize railway companies to abandon certain portions of their roads near the coast, when their termini are at points where towns being county sites have been destroyed by storms and cyclones.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas: That any railway company in the State of Texas having a terminus on the coast, the said terminus being a county site, and the same having been destroyed by storms and cyclones, and when said county site has been removed back from the coast near the line of said railway, it shall be lawful for said railway company to remove and take up its track from its original terminus on the coast to a point opposite, or near, said new county site: Provided, Said railway company make its terminus at, and build its road to, said new county site. SEC. 2. This being a matter of great general interest and importance, and there being no law regulating the same, an imperative public necessity exists for its immediate passage; it is therefore enacted that the constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several days before passage be suspended, and this act take effect from and after its passage. [NOTE. The foregoing act originated in the Senate, and passed the same by a vote of 27 yeas, 1 nay; and passed the House by a vote of 80 yeas, no nays.]

Approved, February 16, 1887.

UNLAWFULLY CARRYING ARMS.

SEC. 1. Enumerates prohibited weapons, and increases punishment for this offense. CHAP. 9.—[H. B. No. 51.] An Act to amend Article 318, Chapter 4, Title 9, of the Penal Code of the State of Texas.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas: That Article 318 of the Penal Code shall be amended as to hereafter read as fol lows:

Article 318. If any person in this State shall carry on or about his person, saddle, or in his saddlebags, any pistol, dirk, dagger, slung shot, sword cane, spear, or knuckles made of any metal or any hard substance, bowie knife, or any other kind of knife manufactured or sold for purposes of offense or defense, he shall be punished by fine of not less than twentyfive nor more than two hundred dollars, and shall be confined in the county jail not less than twenty nor more than sixty days. Approved, February 24, 1887.

RAPE.

SEC. 1. More fully defines rape.

CHAP. 10.—[H. B. No. 47.] An Act to amend Article 528, Chapter Seven, Title 15,

of the Penal Code.

1

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas: That Title 15, Chapter 7, Article 528, of the Penal Code, be amended so as to hereafter read as follows:

Article 528. Rape is the carnal knowledge of a woman without her consent, obtained by force, threats, or fraud; or the carnal knowledge of a female under the age of ten years, with or without consent, and with or without the use of force, threats, or fraud; or the carnal knowledge of a woman other than the wife of the person having such carnal knowledge, with or without consent, and with or without force, threats, or fraud, such woman being so mentally diseased at the time as to have no will to oppose the act of carnal knowledge, the person having carnal knowledge of her knowing her to be so mentally diseased.

Approved, February 25, 1887.

SCHOOL LANDS.

SEC.

1. Extends time for payment of principal. 2. Saving clause as to interest.

SEC.

3. Emergency clause.

CHAP. 11.-[H. B. No. 304.] An Act extending for ten years the payment of the principal of the purchase money for lands purchased under the two acts of the Legislature herein named.

Whereas, under an act of the Legislature of this State providing for the sale of State school lands, approved April 24, 1874, and an act of the Legislature of this State providing for the sale of the asylum lands of the State, approved April 25, 1874, many of said lands were sold on a credit of ten years, the principal bearing ten per cent interest per annum; and

Whereas, many of the obligations given for said lands are now about to become due, and said purchase money is bringing to the State a higher rate of interest than can be otherwise obtained for the same sum; and

Whereas, it is to the interest of the State school fund, and other funds to which such lands belong, that the time for the payment of said principal purchase money be extended: Therefore,

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas: That all purchasers of said lands under either of the above recited acts, or their assignees, shall have ten years from the date when their original obligations given for said lands shall have fallen due within which to pay the principal of said obligations, and no forfeiture of said lands shall be declared on account of the non-payment of the principal of said obligation until the

expiration of ten years from the date of the maturity of the same as orig inally made.

SEC. 2. Nothing in this act shall be construed to, in any respect, relieve said purchasers from the payment of interest on said lands in the manner or on the terms presented in said original acts, nor to prevent a forfeiture of said lands for a failure to comply with the terms of said original obligations in the payment of interest.

SEC. 3. Whereas, many of said obligations will fall due on the first day of March, 1887, and whereas it is to the interest of the State that said principal sums yet unpaid should be left unpaid so long as the same will bring ten per cent interest, and whereas many of the said purchasers will be compelled to make great sacrifices to secure the money to pay said obligations if compelled to pay the same when due, therefore an imperative public necessity exists for the immediate passage of this bill, and that it take effect from passage; therefore the constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several days is hereby suspended, and it is enacted that this bill take effect from and after its passage.

[NOTE.-The foregoing act originated in the House, and passed the same by a vote of 71 yeas, 21 nays; and passed the Senate by a vote of 23 yeas, 1 nay.]

SEC.

Approved, February 25, 1887.

NEW COUNTIES CREATED OUT OF TOM GREEN COUNTY.

1. Creates six counties out of Tom Green County and declares boundaries, viz.: [a] Ector County, [6] Winkler County, [c] Loving County, [d] Upton County, [e] Crane County, If] Ward County. 2. Declares in whose honor said counties are named. 3. Attaches Winkler, Loving, and Ward to Reeves County for judicial and other purposes.

SEC.

4.

Attaches Ector, Crane, and Upton to Midland
County for judicial and other purposes.

5.

Expense of surveying lines of new counties, how paid.

6.

7.

New counties to pay pro rata share of Tom Green
County debts contracted for public buildings.
Emergency clause.

CHAP. 12.-[H. B. No. 113.] An Act to divide the western portion of Tom Green

County into six new counties.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas: That the following new counties shall be and are hereby created out of the western portion of Tom Green County, and the boundaries thereof shall be as follows:

[a] The County of Ector: Beginning at the northwest corner of Midland County; running thence south with the line of Midland County 30 miles; thence west 30 miles; thence north 30 miles to the south boundary line of Andrews County; thence east 30 miles with the southern boundary line of Andrews County to the place of beginning.

[6] The County of Winkler: Beginning at the northwest corner of Ector County; thence running south with the west boundary line of Ector County 30 miles; thence west 31 miles; thence north 27 miles to the south boundary line of New Mexico; thence east with the south boundary line of New Mexico 13 miles to the southeast corner of New Mexico; thence north with the east boundary of New Mexico 2 miles to the southwest corner of Andrews County; thence east with the south boundary line of Andrews County 18 miles to the place of beginning.

[c] The County of Loving: Commencing at the northwest corner of Winkler County; running thence south with the west boundary line of Winkler County twenty-seven and one-half (27) miles; thence due west to the Pecos River; thence northwesterly with the meanderings of the Pecos River to the point at which the south boundary line of New Mexico crosses the Pecos River; thence east with the south boundary line of New Mexico to the place of beginning.

[d] The County of Upton: Commencing at the southeast corner of Midland County; thence west with the south boundary line of Midland County thirty-one miles to the northeast corner of Crane County; thence south thirty-six miles to the north boundary line of Crockett County; thence east with the north boundary line of Crockett County thirty-one miles; thence north thirty-six miles to the place of beginning.

[e] The County of Crane: Commencing at the northwest corner of Upton County; thence running west with the south boundary line of Ector County twenty-six and one-half miles; thence due south to the Pecos River; thence in a southeasterly direction with the meanderings of the river Pecos to a point where the north boundary line of Crockett County touches the Pecos River; thence east with the north boundary line of Crockett County to the southwest corner of Upton County; thence north with the west boundary line of Upton County thirty-six miles to the place of beginning. [f] The County of Ward: Commencing at the northwest corner of Crane County; thence due west with the south boundary line of Winkler and Loving Counties to the Pecos River; thence in a southeasterly direction with the meanderings of the Pecos River to the southwest corner of Crane County; thence north with the west boundary line of Crane County to the place of beginning.

SEC. 2. [a] The county of Ector is named in honor of General Mat. Ector, commander of Ector's Brigade, and judge of the Court of Appeals of Texas. [6] The county of Winkler is named in honor of C. M. Winkler, a dis tinguished statesman, soldier and jurist of Texas.

[c] The county of Loving is named in honor of Oliver Loving, a brave pioneer of West Texas, who fell at the hands of the Indians, in the territory designated by his name.

[d] The county of Upton is named in honor of Colonel John Upton, who was killed at the head of his regiment, gloriously leading the same in the charge at the second battle of Manassas, and his distinguished brother, the Hon. William F. Upton (lately deceased).

[e] The county of Crane is named in honor of William Carey Crane, the author of the Life of General Sam Houston, and twenty-five years president of Baylor University, this State.

[f] The county of Ward is named in honor of Thomas William Ward, a commissioner of the General Land Office, and United States Consul to Panama, under the administration of Buchanan.

SEC. 3. That the counties of Winkler, Loving, and Ward be and the same are hereby attached to the county of Reeves for judicial, surveying, and all other purposes.

SEC. 4. That the counties of Ector, Crane, and Upton be and the same are hereby attached to the county of Midland for judicial, surveying, and all other purposes.

SEC. 5. The expenses of running and marking the lines of the new counties thus to be created by this act shall be paid by the new counties, and each person appointed to run and mark any line or lines of any of the said new counties shall be allowed three dollars per mile for each mile run and designated.

SEC. 6. That the new counties to be created by this act shall pay a pro rata share of the existing debt of the county of Tom Green contracted for public buildings; and there shall be set apart so much of the county tax levied and collected upon the property situated in the portions so taken from the county of Tom Green, annually, as shall be sufficient to speedily liquidate said debt, if any.