Transfer of pending suits. Court records, and officers of the United States or of the Territory of Oklahoma, and the courts of said Territory having jurisdiction of similar matters shall make and issue all orders and writs necessary to enforce the orders, decrees, and final judgments of said courts and officers of Texas. SECTION 3. That all suits which were pending in the several courts of said Greer County, Texas, on March sixteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, as shown by the dockets thereof, shall be entered upon the dockets of the courts of Oklahoma having jurisdiction of like cases, and the same shall proceed as if they had been brought in said courts of Oklahoma. Where an appeal or writ of error has been taken from a judgment in any civil or criminal case rendered by any of said courts of Greer County, Texas, to any other court of Texas, the judgment of such appellate court shall be binding upon all parties to such case, and upon the filing of a certified copy thereof in the court of Oklahoma having jurisdiction of like cases, it shall be the duty of such court to enter the same upon its minutes and proceed in said action in all respects as though it had rendered the original judg ment therein. All rights in the cases mentioned in this section shall be determined by the law of Texas applicable to the act or transaction involved, and the courts shall take judicial notice of such law for that purpose. When any judgment affirmed by any such appellate court provides for imprisonment, such imprisonment shall be in such place as the proper court of Oklahoma shall designate. etc. Contracts, SECTION 4. That all records, minutes, and files of any etc., filed Vali ment, etc., of State courts prior to March 16, 1896. dation of judg- of the courts and officers mentioned in section two of this Act shall be preserved and kept by the proper courts and officers of Oklahoma, and they, or certified copies thereof, shall be competent evidence. All written contracts, conveyances, mortgages, liens, or other instruments which have been heretofore filed or recorded in said Greer County, in conformity with the laws of Texas, shall be held and considered to have been legally filed or recorded, and it shall not be necessary again to file or record them. And all interests, rights, titles, and estates, conveyed, limited, encumbered, or in any wise affected by any contract, lien, conveyance, mortgage, or other instrument, or by any judgment or decree of any court of Texas of competent jurisdiction, and all judgments of said courts, civil and criminal, prior in date to March sixteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, shall have the same force and effect in all respects as if said Greer County had legally formed a part of the territory of the State of Texas up to March sixteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, and had upon that date been lawfully ceded by Texas to the United States with a reservation and ratification of all existing rights and liabilities according to the laws of Texas. AN ACT making one year's residence in a Territory a prerequisite to obtain a divorce there. One year's in residence requerce pro Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled: SECTION 1. That no divorce shall be granted in any Territories. Territory for any cause unless the party applying for the divorce shall have resided continuously in the Territory ceedings. for one year next preceding the application: Provided actions. That this Act shall not affect any action duly commenced and pending at the date of the passage thereof. Approved, May 25, 1896. Pending Oklahoma. Homestead entry author ed townsites. market. ARTICLE 6.-VACATED TOWNSITES AND ADDITIONS TO SECTION. 1. Oklahoma. Homestead entry SECTION. 2. Public sales of vacated lands. Sales of isolated tracts. 3. Repeal. AN ACT to provide for the disposal of public reservations in vacated town sites or additions to town sites in the Territory of Oklahoma. De it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled: SECTION 1. That in all cases where a townsite, or an ized on vacat- addition to a townsite, entered under the provisions of ales in open section twenty-two of an Act entitled "An Act to provide a temporary government for the Territory of Oklahoma, to enlarge the jurisdiction of the United States court in the Indian Territory, and for other purposes," approved May second, eighteen hundred and ninety, shall be vacated in accordance with the laws of the Territory of Oklahoma, and patents for the public reservations in such vacated townsite, or addition thereto, have not been issued, it shall be lawful for the Commissioner of the General Land Office, upon an official showing that such townsite, or addition thereto, has been vacated, and upon payment of the homestead price for such reservations, to issue a patent for such reservations to the original entryman. If the original entryman shall fail or neglect to make application for the reservations within six months from the vacation of such townsite, or from the passage of this Act, the reservations shall be subject to disposal under the provisions of section twenty-four hundred and fifty-five of the Revised Statutes of the United States, as amended by the Act approved February twenty-sixth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five. Public sales of vacated isolated tracts. SECTION 2. That if a patent has already issued, or lands. Sales of shall hereafter issue, for any such reservation, to any town or municipality, such town or municipality, upon the vacation of the townsite or addition thereto, as aforesaid, may sell the same at public or private sale, to the highest bidder after thirty day's public notice of such sale, and convey said lands to the purchaser by proper deed of conveyance, and cover the proceeds of such sale into the school fund of such town or municipality: Provided, That where, by reason of the vacation of an entire townsite and all its additions, the municipal organization has ceased to exist, the reservations in such vacated townsite which may have been patented to the town may be disposed of as isolated tracts under the provisions of section twenty-four hundred and fifty-five of the Revised Statutes of the United States, as amended by the Act approved February twenty-sixth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five. SECTION 3. That all laws and parts of laws, in so far Repeal. as they conflict with this Act, are hereby repealed. Approved, May 11, 1896. ARTICLE 7.-DISTRICT CLERKS' FEES. SECTION. 1. District clerks' fees. AN ACT making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the government for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, and for other purposes. 66 # That hereafter the clerks of the district courts in the Territories of Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma shall be required to report in their semi-annual emolument reports all fees earned in United States cases only; and that the accounting officers of the Treasury Department are directed to settle all unadjusted emolument accounts of said clerks accordingly." Approved, July 1st, 1898. Territories. issue bonds for sanitary, etc, purposes: termine issu Notice of. Property qualification for voters. Sinking fund. Interest. ARTICLE 8.-CORPORATIONS MAY ISSUE Bonds. SECTION. 1. Territories. Municipal cor porations may issue bonds terest. AN ACT to amend an act to prohibit the passage of local or special laws in the Territories, to limit Territorial indebtedness, and so forth. Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled: SECTION 1. That the Act of Congress approved July porations may thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty-six, entitled "An Act to prohibit the passage of local or special laws in Election to de- the Territories of the United States, to limit Territorial ance of bonds. indebtedness, and for other purposes," is hereby amended so as to permit, authorize, and legalize the issuance of bonds by chartered municipal corporations having a bona fide population of not less than one thousand persons, as shown by the last school census taken before any election to be held under the provisions of this Act, in any Territory of the United States, for sanitary and health purposes, the construction of sewers, water works, and the improvement of streets. The limitations of said Act of July thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty-six, shall not apply to such municipal corporations: Provided, That before any bonds shall be issued the mayor and common council of said chartered municipal corporations shall cause an election to be held in such city or town, and the mayor and common council of such municipal corporation shall cause to be published, in a newspaper of general circulation published in such city or town, a notice of the time and place or places of holding such election. Such notice shall be given at least thirty days before such election. On the question of the issuance of said bonds no person shall be qualified to vote except he be in all respects a qualified elector and owner of real or personal property subject to taxation within th municipality. In case two-thirds of the qualified voters, as |