from her husband, has absconded from her children, and such minor or minors shall have no guardian, the court of sessions having jurisdiction of this matter shall appoint some suitable person guardian ad litem or next friend of such minor or minors, whose duty it shall be to see that the provisions of this act are carried into effect. The proceeds of the sale of said personal property and the rents and profits of said real estate shall not be mingled or placed with any other funds held or owned by the officer or officers receiving the same, but shall be kept separate and distinct. Such superintendent, overseer of the poor, board of charities or other authorized officer shall give security for the faithful performance of the duties hereby imposed in such form and in such sum as the aforesaid court may direct, and shall account to the court of sessions for all moneys so received by them and for the application thereof from time to time and may be compelled by the said court to render such account at any time.

§ 3. Notice of such accounting shall be given to the wife or children, so left and abandoned, as the case may be, and to the guardian of such children, if any of them be minors. And in the event that no guardian or next friend has been appointed, as hereinbefore provided, the said court shall, prior to such accounting being had, appoint some suitable person to attend upon such accounting in behalf of said minors, and notice of such appointment and of such accounting shall be given to the persons so appointed.

§ 4. All penalties received from the prosecution of any recog nizance given by any person who shall have abandoned or neg lected his wife or children, or who shall have threatened to run away and leave his wife or children a burden on the public, shall be retained by the officer at whose instance such recognizance was prosecuted, and applied for the same purpose and in the same manner as in the first section of this act provided for the disposition of the proceeds of the sales of personal property and the rents and profits of real estate seized under the provisions of this act.

PROCEEDINGS RESPECTING VAGRANTS.

Title VI of Part VI of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Section 887. Who are vagrants.

887a. Tramp defined.

888. Proceedings before magistrate.

889. Examination as to residence.

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 vagrants.

893. Children begging, how disposed of.

894. Arrest of vagrants.

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 a person disguised. If his name be not known, fictitious name may be used.

Section 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 employment. 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, outhouses, 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 calcu lated 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.

9. Every male person who lives wholly or in part on the earnings of prostitution, or who in any public places solicits for immoral purposes. A male person who lives with or is habitually in the company of a prostitute and has no visible means of support, shall be deemed to be living on the earnings of prostitution. (Added by chapter 281 of the Laws of 1900.)

§ 887a. Tramp defined.-A tramp is any person, not blind, over sixteen years of age, and who has not resided in the county in which he may be at any time for a period of six months prior thereto, who

1. Not having visible means to maintain himself, lives without employment; or

2. Wanders abroad and begs, or goes about from door to door, or places himself in the streets, highways, passages or public places to beg or receive alms; or

3. Wanders abroad and lodges in taverns, groceries, ale-houses, watch or station houses, outhouses, market places, sheds, stables, barns or uninhabited buildings, or in the open air, and does not give a good account of himself. (Added by chapter 664 of the Laws of 1898.)

§ 888. Proceedings before magistrate.-When complaint is made to any magistrate by any citizen or peace officer against any vagrant under subdivision eight 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 becomes 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 make the like disposition of such child as is authorized to be made by section two hundred and ninety-one of the Penal Code, of children coming within the descriptions therein mentioned. amended by chapter 220 of the Laws of 1888.)

(As

§ 889. Examination as to residence. When complaint is made to any magistrate by any citizen or peace officer against a person under sections one, five or six of section eight hundred and eightyseven, the magistrate must, upon the examination of such person, cause testimony to be taken as to his residence, and if it appears that such person has not resided in the county for a period of six months prior to his arrest, such magistrate shall not commit such person as a vagrant, as provided by this article; but if he finds that such person is guilty of an offense charged in one of such subdivisions, and such person is not blind or under sixteen years of age, the magistrate shall adjudge him to be a tramp, and commit him to a penitentiary, as required by law. On such examination the uncorroborated testimony of the defendant as to his place of residence shall not be deemed sufficient proof thereof. (Added by chapter 664 of the Laws of 1898.)

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

city, for the purpose of

the general sessions of the same examination.

§ 891. Vagrant, when to be convicted; form of 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, and has resided in the county for a period of six months prior to his arrest, he must convict him, and must make and sign, with his name of office, a certificate substantially in the following form:

"I certify that A B, having been brought before me, charged with being a vagrant, I have only examined the charge, and that upon his confession in my presence (or 'upon the testimony of C. D. et cetera, naming the witnesses), by which it appears that he is a person (pursuing the description contained in the subdivision of section eight hundred and eighty-seven, which is appropriate to the case), and (if convicted under subdivisions one, five or six of section eight hundred and eighty-seven) that he has resided in the county of..........for a period of six months immediately prior to his arrest, I have adjudged that he is a vagrant.

"Dated at the town (or city) of ...

the........day of

"EF, (or as the

"Justice of the peace of the town of.. case may be). (As amended by chapter 664 of the Laws of 1898). § 892. Certificate to constitute record of conviction, and to be filed; commitment of vagrants.-The magistrate must immediately cause the certificate which constitutes the record of conviction, together with the testimony taken before him as to the resi dence of such vagrant, 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 poorhouse, if there be one, or to the almshouse or poorhouse 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. In those counties of the state where the distinction between county poor and town poor is maintained, the expense of the conviction and maintenance during the