TITLE VI.

OF PROCEEDINGS RESPECTING VAGRANTS.

SECTION 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 convic

tion.

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 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, 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 school, found wandering in the streets or lanes of any city or incorporated village, a truant, without any lawful occupation. 2 R. S., 836, § 1.

(a) Prostitute, vagrancy. Proof that the prisoner was a common prostitute does not authorize her conviction and commitment as a vagrant. (Forbe's case, 11 Abb., 52; 19 How., 457; People v. Forbes, 4 Park., 611; see, also, Gray's case, 11 Abb., 56; 4 Park, 616.)

When complaint

§ 888. Proceedings before magistrate. 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 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 tc 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.

2 R. S., 97, § 1.

§ 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 vil lage, and may be bound out as an apprentice by them, or either

of them, with the consent of any magistrate, or any of the alder men 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 respects to parents whose children have become chargeable on any town. Id., § 3

§ 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 the general sessions of the same city, for the purpose of examination.

2 R. S., 836, §§ 2, 5.

(a) Vagrant; how arrested. A vagrant may not be arrested without a warrant under a city ordinance. (People ex rel. Kingsley, 22 Hun, 300.)

§ 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, 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 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 subdivi sion of section eight hundred and eighty-seven, which is appropriate to the case], I have adjudged that he is a vagrant. "Dated at the town [or city] of

the

"E. F.,

day of

Id., § 3. What amounts to a confession. (Brown v. People, 4 Barb., 164.)

$892. (Amended 1882.) 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 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 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 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. Id., § 3.

§ 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.

Id., § 4.

§ 894. (Amended 1882.) Peace officers to arrest and pursue a person disguised, and take him before a magistrate. 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 eight hundred and eighty-seven is found, to arrest and take him before a magistrate mentioned in section eight hundred and eighty-eight, to be proceeded against as a vagrant. Id., § 6.

§ 895. Private citizens 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. Id., § 6.

§ 896. Peace officer may require aid; duty of persons required to aid him. In the execution of the duties imposed by section eight hundred and ninety-four, 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 com

manded, may provide himself or be provided with, such means and weapons as the officer giving the command may designate. Id., § 7.

§ 897. Neglect or refusal to aid peace officer, without cause, 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.

Id., § 8.

§ 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. A magistrate to whom complaint is made against a person charged as a vagrant, as described in the seventh subdivision of section eight hundred and eighty-seven, 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.

Id., § 9.

TITLE VII.

OF PROCEEDINGS RESPECTING DISORDERLY PERSONS.

SECTION 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.

907. Defendant committed for not giving security, how discharged.