TITLE VI.

Of Proceedings respecting Vagrants.

SEC. 887. Who are vagrants.

888. Proceedings before magistrate.

889. Child, how kept.

890. Peace officers, when required by any person, to carry vagrant before a magistrate for examination.

891. Vagrant, when to be convicted. Form of certificate of conviction.

892. Certificate to constitute record of conviction, and to be filed. Commitment of vagrant.

893. Children begging, how disposed of.

894. Peace officers to arrest and pursue a person disguised, and take him before a magistrate.

895. Private citizen may do so, without warrant.

896. Peace officer may require aid. Duty of persons required to aid him.

897. Neglect or refusal to aid peace officer, without lawful cause, a misdemeanor. Punishment.

898. Magistrate may depute an elector of the county to make arrest of person disguised. If his name be not known, fictitious name may be used.

§ 887. Who are vagrants.—The following persons are vagrants:

1. A person who, not having visible means to maintain himself, lives without employment;

2. A person who, being an habitual drunkard, abandons, neglects, or refuses to aid in the support of his family;

3. A person who has contracted an infectious or other disease, in the practice of drunkenness or debauchery, requiring charitable aid to restore him to health;

4. A common prostitute, who has no lawful employmont, whereby to maintain herself;

5. A person wandering abroad and begging, or who goes about from door to door, or places himself in the streets, highways, passages, or other public places, to beg or receive alms;

6. A person wandering abroad and lodging in taverns, groceries, ale-houses, watch or station-houses, out-houses, market places, sheds, stables, barns or uninhabited buildings, or in the open air, and not giving a good account of himself;

7. A person, who, having his face painted, discolored,

covered or concealed, or being otherwise disguised, in a manner calculated to prevent his being identified, appears in a road or public highway, or in a field, lot, wood or inclosure.

8. Any child between the age of five and fourteen, having sufficient bodily health and mental capacity to attend the public schools, found wandering in the streets or lanes of any city or incorporated village, a truant, without any lawful occupation.

Sub. 4. Matter of Forbes, 19 How. Pr., 457.

§ 888. Proceedings before magistrate.—When complaint is made to any magistrate by any citizen or peace officer against any vagrant under subdivision 8 of the last section, such magistrate must cause a peace officer to bring such child before him for examination, and shall also cause the parent, guardian or master of such child, if the child has any, to be summoned to attend such examination.

If, thereon, the complaint shall be satisfactorily established, the magistrate must require the parent, guardian or master to enter into an engagement in writing to the corporate authorities of the city or village, that he will restrain such child from so wandering about, will keep him in his own premises or in some lawful occupation, and will cause him to be sent to some school, at least four months in each year, until he become fourteen years old.

The magistrate may, in his discretion, require security for the faithful performance of such engagement.

If the child has no parent, guardian or master, or none can be found, or if the parent, guardian or master refuse or neglect, within a reasonable time, to enter into such engagement, and to give such security if required, the magistrate shall by warrant commit the child to such place as shall be provided for his reception. If no such place for his reception has been provided, he shall commit him to the alms-house of the county.

§ 889. Child how kept.-Every child received pursuant to the last section, shall be kept until discharged by the overseers of the poor or the commissioners of the

alms-house of the city or village, and may be bound out as an apprentice by them, or either of them, with the consent of any magistrate, or any of the aldermen of the city, or any trustee of an incorporated village where he may be, in the same manner, for the same periods and subject to the same provisions in all respects as directed in respect to parents whose children have become chargeable on any town.

§ 890. Peace officers, when to arrest.-A peace officer must, when required by any person, take a vagrant before a justice of the peace or police justice of the same city, village or town, or before the mayor, recorder, or city judge, or judge of the general sessions of the same city, for the purpose of examination.

See Peo. ex rel. Kingsley v. Pratt, 22 Hun, 300.

Form of

§891 Vagrant, when to be convicted. certificate of conviction.—If the magistrate be satisfied, from the confession of the person so brought before him, or by competent testimony, that he is a vagrant, he must convict him, and must make and sign, with his name of office, a certificate in substantially the following form:

"I certify that A. B., having been brought before me, charged with being a vagrant, I have duly examined the charge, and that upon his own confession in my presence, [or 'upon the testimony of C. D.,' etc., naming the witnesses], by which it appears that he is a person [pursuing the description contained in the subdivision of section 887, which is appropriate to the case], I have adjuged that he is a vagrant.

"Dated at the town [or city] of

18

the day of

What is a confession. Brown v. Peo., 4 Barb., 164.

§ 892. Certificate to be filed. Commitment of vagrants.-The magistrate must immediately cause the

certificate, which constitutes the record of conviction, to be filed in the office of the clerk of the county, and must by a warrant, signed by him with his name of office, commit the vagrant, if not a notorious offender, and a proper object for such relief, to the county poor-house if there be one, or to the alms-house or poor-house of the city, village or town, for not exceeding six months, at hard labor, or if the vagrant be an improper person to be so committed, he must be committed for a like term, to the county jail, or in the city of New York, to the city prison or penitentiary of said city, or in the county of Kings to the penitentiary of that county.

In re John Wacher, 62 How. P. R., 352; Peo. v. Coffee, 62 id., 445.

§ 893. Children begging, how disposed of.— If a child be found begging for alms, or soliciting charity from door to door, or in a street, highway, or public place in a city, village or town, a justice of the peace or police justice, on complaint and proof thereof, must commit the child to the county poor-house or other place provided for the support of the poor, to be kept, employed and instructed in useful labor, until discharged by the county superintendents of the poor, or in the city of New York, by the commissioners of charities and corrections, or bound out as an apprentice by them, as prescribed by special statutes.

§ 894. Peace officers to arrest and pursue a person disguised. It is the duty of every peace officer of the county, city, village or town, where a person described in the seventh subdivision of section 887 is found, to arrest and take him before a magistrate mentioned in section 888, to be proceeded against as a vagrant.

§ 895. Private citizen may do so without warrant. -A private citizen of the county may also, without warrant, exercise the powers conferred upon a peace officer by the last section.

§896. Peace officer may require aid.—In the execution of the duties imposed by section 894, the peace officer may command the aid of as many male inhabitants

of his county, city, village or town, as he may think proper; and a citizen so commanded, may provide himself or be provided, with such means and weapons as the officer giving the command may designate.

§ 897. Neglect to aid peace officer a misdemeanor. Punishment. A person commanded to aid the officer, as prescribed in the last section, and who without lawful cause refuses or neglects to do so, is guilty of a misdemeanor, and is punishable by a fine not exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both.

§ 898. Magistrate may depute an elector of the county to make arrest. If his name be not known, fictitious name may be used. A magistrate to whom complaint is made against a person charged as a vagrant, as described in the seventh subdivision of section 887, may, by a warrant, signed by him with his name of office, depute an elector of the county to arrest and bring the vagrant before him, to answer the complaint; and if the name of the person complained of be not known, he may be described in the warrant and in all subsequent proceedings thereon, by a fictitious name.

TITLE VII.

Of Proceedings Respecting Disorderly Persons.

SEC. 899. Who are disorderly persons.

900. On complaint, warrant to be issued.

901. On confession or proof that he is a disorderly person, security to be required.

902. If security given, defendant to be discharged. If not, to be convicted. Form of certificate.

903. Certificate, to constitute record of conviction, and to be filed. Commitment thereon.

904. Undertaking, when forfeited.

905. How prosecuted, and proceeds how applied.

906. When new security may be required, or defendant committed after recovery on undertaking.