The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-02-15
FATHER MAY DEED
CHILD To ANOTHER
Old Which is Stranger
to Most Lawyers
NO CONSENT OF MOTHER

Old Statute So Rarely Invoked That
1t Has Become Lost to Mind-Lass
Tffne it Was Applied in Case III
This Section Fifteen Years Ago
The Subject Brought up. by the
Sensational Case Against the Till
man in South Carolina Now rcn.t-
ing-Found Slowed Away in the
ReyisaI up at Supreme Court Ii
brary.
A North Carolina law OF long
standing. but which has been so sell
dom INVOKED that SO out of 100 Lay
gers today do not think it is in the
statute books. has been 'unearthed'
out OF curiosity
One OF the greatest lawyers IN
North Carolina, when asked yester-
day by a representative of this news
paper If such a law existed, replied
that he thought not; that it was ii
stranger to him.
The able and alert clerk of the
Supreme cours of the State. held the
same view till Cat the writer's In
stance) he looked UP the matter and
found the law referred to snugly laid
away in the Reyisal. Later the re-
porter SHE'D the legal caster into the
ring for Col. John Nichols benefit.
Col. Nichols is not q practicing at
soTney. but lac has been a magis-
srate. United States Commissioners.
etc, SO long that he is a better law
yer than some Of those who appear
in his court to defend clients whom
he is prosecuting.
But. because he knows some laW,
did not serve to put him in the cate
CORY of the other ninety-and-nine
just referred TO.
yes. there's uch q law in North
Carolina" promptly declared Mr.
c unless it has been repealed
within the last dozen years or So.
Then he recited an instance tg1Vlns
the names Of the paTtieS( where this
law was invoked something like fiji
teen years ago-the last time he
had heard of It.
Father Can Deed Children TO Another
Without Mothers Consent.
The question arose in this way:
While going through some State eX-
changes a News and Observer man
observed the following editorial para
graph in the Monroe Enquirer:
Wei III BE-. i Nat y ma
a citizen said and some of the rest
OF us thougnt when it was found
that there ,is a Law in his State al
lowing a father to deed his children
TO whomsoever he pleaseS, just about
like the South Carolina law in the
same matter. And that, too. after
North Carolina had been rolling her
eyes in more holy than thou
fashion at SouCh Carolina 'Nough
to make him say It."
The reference made in the above
quotations.. it will be understood, is
to the case Of Ben. Tillman, Jr., who
recently tdee1ed" his children to his
father, the famous United States sen
ator-the act being prompted by
zion Of young Tillman from his wife
She mother IF the children.
Text Of the North Carolina Law.
So IL was up to the News and Oh
server man to discover the identity
and habitat OF this remarkable Law
this strange" law, it may be
called, inasmuch as il is u stranger
so most lawyers.
Taking the Supreme court law Il
brary as his hunting ground and
conscrlpting the learned clerk Of tina
court to be his guide, the writer wen
CUNNING for the alleged creature
which, If in existence, must necessa.
Fly DC browsing in tina.
tL4Intuiaic NiClnJLv.
1t did not take long to find this
wandering child of legislation, 70,
the Colonel impressed Game-Keepe,
Walker (WhO knows the preserve per
fectIy) into service and instructed
him to fetch the Rcyisai of 1905 o.
North Carolina.
Here is what was found therein:
Chapter So. Section 1852, Vol. !
OF the ReVisal of 1905 of North Caro-
lima relating to "Guardians appointed
by parent-Father, and if dead
mother may appoint:
ANY father, though lie be {
minor, may. BY deed. executed in his
lifetime. or by his last wiz and tceta