d children. (1893.)

The "age of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 13 years in
1886; to 14 in 1888; to 16 in 1893. The penalty is imprisonment in the
State prison for life or for any term of years, or for any term in any
other penal institution in the commonwealth. This may be one day in
the city jail.

Among various laws passed in the interests of women was one in 1895
making army nurses eligible to receive State aid. One of 1896 requires
the State to inter the wife or widow of an honorably discharged
soldier, sailor or marine who served during the Civil War, if she did
not leave sufficient means for funeral expenses, provided she was
married prior to 1870. In 1900 it was enacted that the State should
perform a similar service for the mothers of said soldiers, sailors or
marines, and that this should not be with the pauper dead, in either
case.

Massachusetts has detailed laws regarding the employment of women,
among them one restricting the hours of work in any mercantile
establishment to fifty-eight in a week, except in retail stores during
the month of December. Ten hours is a legal workday for women in
general.

Separate houses of detention are required for women prisoners in
cities of over 30,000.[326]

SUFFRAGE: The original charter of Massachusetts in 1691 did not
exclude women from voting. In 1780 the first constitution prohibited
them from voting except for certain officers. The new constitution of
1820 limited the suffrage strictly to males.

In 1879 the Legislature enacted that a woman twenty-one years of age,
who could give satisfactory evidence as to residence and who could
stand the educational test (_i. e._, be able to read five lines of the
constitution and write her name), and who should give notice in
writing to the assessors that she wished to be assessed a poll tax
(two dollars) and should give in under oath a statement of her taxable
property (which was not required of men, as they had the option of
letting the assessors guess at the amount) should thereupon be
assessed and should be entitled to register and vote for members of
school boards.[327] In order to keep her name on the registration
list this entire process had to be repeated every year, while a man's
name once placed on the list was kept there without further effort on
his part, and the payment of the same poll tax entitled him to full
suffrage.

In 1881 the poll tax was reduced to fifty cents, and the law was
change