When any bill of exchange expressed to be for value received, drawn or negotiated within this state, shall be duly presented for acceptance or payment, and protested for non-acceptance or non-payment, there shall be allowed and paid to the holders by the drawer and endorsers having due notice of the dishonor of the bill, damages in the following cases: First, if the bill shall have been drawn by any person, at any place within this state, at the rate of four per centum on the principal sum specified in the bill. Second, if the bill shall have been drawn on any person, at any place out of this state, but within the United States or territories thereof, at the rate of two per centum on the principal sum specified in the bill. Third, if the bill shall have been drawn on any person, at any part or place without the United States and their territories, at the rate of twenty per centum on the principal sum specified in the bill.

If any bill of exchange expressed to be for value received, shall be drawn on any person, at any place within this state, and accepted, and payment shall not be duly made by the acceptor, there shall be allowed and paid to the holder, by the acceptor, damages in the following cases: First, if the bill be drawn by any person, at any place within this state, at the rate of four per centum on the principal sum therein specified. Second, if the bill be drawn by any person, at any place without this state, but within the United States or territories, at the rate of ten per centum on the principal sum therein specified.

The damages herein allowed shall be recovered only by the holder of a bill, who shall have purchased the bill or acquired some interest therein, for valuable consideration. In cases of non-acceptance or non-payment of a bill, drawn at any place within this state, on any person at a place within the same, no damages shall be recovered, if payment of the principal sum, with interest and charges of protest, be paid within twenty days after demand, or notice of the dishonor of the bill.

If the contents of a bill be expressed in the money of account of the United States, the amount due and the damages therein, shall be ascertained and determined without any reference to the rate of exchange existing between this state and the place on which the bill shall have been drawn, at the time of demand of payment or notice of the dishonor of the bill.

If the contents of such bill be expressed in the money of account or currency of any foreign country, then the amount due, exclusive of damages, shall be ascertained and determined by the rate of exchange, or the value of such foreign currency at the time of payment.

Every bill of ex hange, draft or order drawn either within this state or elsewhere upon any person residing within this state, payable on its face at sight, or on demand, shall be deemed and considered to be due and payable on the day it is presented, or demanded, any usage or custom

here or elsewhere to the contrary notwithstanding, and if not so paid, may be protested for non-payment.

If in any suit founded upon any negotiable promissory note or bill of exchange, or in which such bill or note is produced, might be allowed in the defense of any suit, it appear on the trial that such note or bill was lost while it belonged to the party claiming the amount due thereon, parol or other evidence of the contents thereof, may be given on such trial, and such party shall be entitled to recover the amount due thereon as if such note or bill had been produced.

To entitle a party to such recovery, he or some responsible person for him, shall execute a bond to the adverse party in a penalty at least double the amount of such note or bill, with two sufficient securities, to be approved by the court in which the trial shall be had, conditioned to indemnify the adverse party against all claims by any other person on account of such note or bill, and against all costs and expenses by reason of such claim.

BILLS OF EXCHANGE AND PROMISSORY NOTES.

A promissory note is a written promise to pay a certain sum of money at a future time, unconditionally.

The person to whom the money is payable is called the payee.

The maker is the one who promises to pay the money when the note becomes due.

A note payable to bearer is negotiated or transferred by mere delivery, and the possession of the note is prima facie proof of title.

A note payable to the order of a particular person is transferred or negotiated by writing the name of the person upon the back of the note, which is called an endorsement. The person making the endorsement is called the endorser. The person for whose benefit it is made is called the endorsee.

Every promissory note for the payment of money to the payee therein named, or order or bearer, and expressed to be for value received, shall be due and payable as therein expressed and shall have the same effect and be negotiable in like manner as inland bills of exchange.

The payee and endorsers of every such negotiable note payable to them or order, and the holder of every such note payable to bearer may maintain actions for the sums of money therein mentioned, against the makers and endorsers of them in like manner as in cases of inland bills of exchange, and not otherwise.

Such negotiable promissory note made payable to the order of the maker thereof, or to the order of a fictitious person shall, if negotiated by the maker, have the same effect and be of the same validity as against the maker, and all persons having knowledge of the facts, as if payable to

bearer. Provided, That negotiable note in the hands of the purchaser of the same from the makers by way of discount or investment if protested for non-payment at maturity, shall not be subjected to damages.

When the day of payment of any bond, bill of exchange, or promissory note, shall according to its terms, be a Sunday, Christmas day, Thanksgiving day (State or National), New Years day, or a Fourth of July, its payment shall be deemed due and be demandable on such day next before its day of payment, according to its terms, as shall not be one of the days above specified.

A notarial protest is evidence of a demand and refusal to pay a bill of exchange or negotiable promissory note, at the time and in the manner stated in such protest.

$1,000.

FORM OF NEGOTIABLE NOTE.

Kansas City, Mo., Aug. 1, 1869. Thirty days after date, I promise to pay Richard Roe, or order, One Thousand Dollars, value received, with interest after due at the rate of ten per cent per annum. LOUIS ROY.

$100.00.

NON-NEGOTIABLE NOTE.

Kansas City, Mo., Aug, 1, 1869. Thirty days after date, I promise to pay Richard Roe, One Hundred Dollars, value received, with interest from date, at the rate of ten per cent per annum.

INTEREST.

The legal rate of interest is six per cent.

LOUIS ROY.

Parties may agree in writing for the payment of interest not exceeding ten per cent.

Money due upon judgments or order of court, shall draw interest from the day of rendering the same. All such judgments and orders for money upon contracts, bearing more than six per cent., shall bear the same interest borne by such contracts. All other judgments and orders for money

shall draw six per cent.

If a greater rate of interest than ten per cent. is contracted for, and suit brought upon the same, judgment will be entered for six per cent., and the whole interest shall be set apart for, and become a part of the common school fund.

Parties may contract in writing for the payment of interest upon interest; but interest shall not be compounded oftener than once a year. Where a different rate is not expressed, interest upon interest shall be at the same rate as interest on the principal debt.

DESCENTS AND DISTRIBUTION OF PROPERTY.

Property in this state shall be distributed in the following course, subject to the payment of debts and the widow's dower:

First. To the children or their descendants in equal parts.

Second. If there be no children or their descendants, then to the father, mother, brothers and sisters, and their descendants, in equal parts.

Third. If there be no children, or their descendants, father, mother, brother or sister, or their descendants, then to the husband or wife. If there be no husband or wife, then to the grandfather, grandmother, uncles and aunts, and their descendants, in equal parts.

Fourth. If there be no children or their descendants, father, mother, sister, brother or their descendants, husband or wife, grandfather, grandmother, uncles, aunts, nor their descendants, then to the great-grandfather, great-grandmother, and their descendants, in equal parts, and so on in other cases without end, passing to the nearest lineal ancestors and their children, and their descendants, in equal parts.

Posthumous children, or descendants of the intestate, shall inherit in like manner as if born in the lifetime of the intestate. This does not apply to anyone other than the children or descendants of the intestate unless they are in being and capable in law to take as heirs at the time of the intestate's death.

If there be no children or their descendants, father, mother, brother or sister, nor their descendants, husband or wife, nor any paternal or maternal kindred capable of inheriting, the whole shall go to the kindred of the wife or husband of the intestate in the like course as if such wife or husband had survived the intestate and then died entitled to the estate.

If any of the children receive any real or personal estate in the lifetime of the intestate by way of advancement, shall choose to come into partition with the other heirs, such advancement shall be brought into hatchpot with the estate descended.

Maintaining, educating, or giving money to a child under majority without any view to a portion or settlement, shall not be deemed an advancement.

Bastards shall inherit and be capable of transmitting inheritance on the part of their mother, and such mother may inherit from her bastard child or children in like manner as if they had been lawfully begotten of

her.

The issues of all marriages decreed null in law or dissolved by divorce shall be legitimate.

Persons of color shall inherit as above set forth, providing it shall appear to the court that they are residents of this state, or if residents of some other state, are free persons.

The children of all parents who were slaves, and who were living

together in good faith as man and wife at the time of the birth of such children, shall be deemed to be the legitimate children of such parents. All children of any one mother who was a slave at the time of her birth shall be deemed lawful brothers and sisters for the purposes of this chapter.

WILLS.

The term will, or last will and testament, means the disposition of one's property, to take effect after death. No exact form of words is necessary in order to make a will good at law.

Every person of twenty-one years of age and upward, of sound mind, may, by last will, devise all his estate, real, personal and mixed, and all interest therein, saving the widow her dower. Every person over the age of eighteen years, of sound mind, may by last will, dispose of his goods and chattles. Every will must be in writing, signed by the testator or by some person by his direction, in his presence, and shall be attested by two or more competent witnesses, subscribing their names to the will in the presence of the testator.

No will in writing, except in cases hereinafter mentioned, nor any part thereof, shall be revoked, except by a subsequent will in writing, or by burning, canceling, tearing or obliterating the same by the testator, or in his presence, and by his consent and direction.

If, after making a will disposing of the whole estate of the testator, such testator shall marry, and die, leaving issue by such marriage living at the time of his death, or shall leave issue of such marriage born to him after his death, such will shall be deemed revoked, unless provisions shall have been made for such issue by some settlement, or unless such issue shall be provided for in the will, and no evidence shall be received to rebut the presumption of such revocation.

A will executed by an unmarried woman shall be deemed revoked by her subsequent marriage.

If a person make his will and die leaving children not provided for, although born after making the will, he shall be deemed to die intestate, and such children shall be entitled to such proportion as if he had died intestate. All other heirs or legatees must refund their proportionate part.

The county court or clerk thereof in vacation subject to the confirmation or rejection of the court, shall take the proof of the last will of the

testator.

GENERAL FORM OF WILL FOR REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY.

I, Richard Johnson, of Carroll county, in the state of Missouri, being of sound mind and memory, and of full age, do hereby make and publish this, my last will and testament, hereby revoking all former wills by me made.