PART IV. Vacancies. Annual election. Quorum. Corporation to procure building sites. one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three; and the second class shall hold their offices respectively until the second Monday of January, which will be in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four; and the third class shall hold their offices respectively until the second Monday of January, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five. $4. To supply the vacancies occasioned by the expiration of the term of service of the eight directors, included in the first class, eight directors shall be elected on the second Monday of January, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, by the members of the said corporation, that is, the directors and such other persons as may have contributed fifty dollars at any one time, or three dollars within the year, to the funds of said corporation. This election shall take place under the direction of three inspectors, to be appointed by the board of directors, and who shall give notice of the time and place of holding such election, by publishing the same in two daily newspapers of the city of New York, for at least two days next preceding said election. The term of office of the eight directors thus elected, shall commence on the second Monday of January, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, and the said directors so elected, shall hold their offices respectively for three years. Annually thereafter, there shall be elected in the same manner, the same number of eight directors, who shall enter upon and hold their offices for three years as herein above provided in regard to the eight directors elected to fill the vacancies occasioned by the expiration of the term of office of the first class of said directors. The board of directors shall have the power, and it shall be their duty, to fill all vacancies that may occur in their own body from any cause whatever, and the person so elected to fill a vacancy; shall hold his office for the unexpired term of his immediate predecessor in office. $5. At all the meetings of the board of directors, eight members shall constitute a quorum, for the transaction of ordinary business; but no purchase or conveyance of real estate, nor removal from or appointment to office shall be made, without a quorum of at least thirteen directors. $6. The corporation hereby created may, so soon as may Suitable be practicable, procure suitable building sites and lands, and erect and maintain thereon an asylum for such children as, under this act, the regulations to be adopted by the board of directors, and the laws of the state and city of New York, may be entrusted or committed to the care and management of the said corporation: such asylum shall embrace the buildings necessary for the comfortable accommodation of the children therein; for their instruction, moral, intellectual, and industrial; and for their general treatment in such manner as may best promote their welfare, and most fully accomplish the beneficent designs and objects of the said corporation and until such building site and lands shall be procured, and the permanent building of the asylum thereon erected and completed for use, the corporation may procure such temporary accommodations as may be necessary for its purposes. As amended by Laws of 1853, ch. 547. CHAP. IV. $ 7. The said corporation may receive and take under its what care and management: 1. Children between seven and fourteen years of age, who, by the consent in writing, of their parents or guardians, shall be voluntarily surrendered and entrusted to it; 2. Children, between seven and fourteen years of age, who may be committed to the charge of the corporation, by order of any magistrate or magistrates of the city and county of New York, as hereinafter provided. As amended by Laws of 1853, ch. 547. children may be surrender § 8. Children entrusted to this corporation by the voluntary Form of act of their parents or guardians, shall be deemed to be in the of child." lawful charge and custody of the said corporation; and such surrender shall be evidenced by a writing in form substantially as follows, viz.: “I, A. B., (father, mother or guardian as the case may be,) of C. D., (a boy or girl) aged years, years, born in do hereby surrrender and entrust to "The New York Juvenile Asylum," for the period of the entire charge, management and control of the said C. D., and do hereby assign to, and invest the said corporation with the same powers and control over the said C. D., as those of which I am possessed." IN PRESENCE OF children. $ 9. Whenever any child above the age of seven and under Destitute the age of fourteen years, shall be brought by any policeman of the city of New York, before the mayor or recorder, or any alderman or other magistrate of the said city, upon the allegation that such child was found in any way, street, highway or public place in said city, in the circumstances of want and suffering, or abandonment, exposure or neglect, or of beggary, specified or defined in the eighteenth section of the act entitled "An act relative to the powers of the common council of the city of New York, and the police and criminal courts of said city," passed January 23, 1833, and it shall be proved to the satisfaction of such magistrate, by competent testimony that such child is embraced within the said section, and it shall further appear to the satisfaction of such magistrate by competent testimony or by the examination of the child, that by reason of the neglect, habitual drunkenness or other vicious habits of the parents or other lawful guardian of such child, it is a proper object for the care and instruction of this corporation, such magistrate instead of committing such child to the alms-house of said city, or such other place, if any, as may have been provided by the common council thereof, in his dis PART IV. cretion by warrant in writing under his hand, may commit such child to this corporation to be and remain under the guardianship of its directors, until therefrom discharged in manner prescribed by law; such commitment shall be by warrant in substance as follows: Order how executed. Further proceedings. Notice how served. To A. B., one of the policemen of the city of New York: You are hereby commanded to take charge of A. B., a child under age of fourteen and above the age of seven years, who has been proved to me by competent evidence to be embraced within the eighteenth section of the act entitled "An act relative to the powers of the common council of the city of New York, and the police and criminal courts of said city," approved January 23, 1833, and who also appears to my satisfaction to be a proper object for the care and instruction of the corporation created by an act entitled "An act to incorporate The New York Juvenile Asylum,'" passed June 30, 1851, and to deliver the said child without delay to the said corporation at his house of reception in this city; and for so doing this shall be your sufficient warrant. Dated this day of As amended by Laws of 1854, ch. 387. 18 : S10. Any order so made by any such magistrate, shall be executed by any policeman to whom it shall be delivered by the magistrate, by conveying the child therein named to the house of reception to be established by this corporation, and such child shall be detained in such house of reception until discharged or removed therefrom in the manner hereinafter provided. S 11. Immediately upon the making of any such order, the magistrate making the same shall deliver to a policeman of the city especially detailed for that service a notice in writing addressed to the father of such child, if its father be living and resident within the city, and if not, then to its mother, if she be living and so resident; and if there be no father or mother of such child resident within the city, then addressed to the lawful guardian of such child, if any, or to the person with whom, according to the examination of the child, and the testimony, if any, received by such magistrate, such child shall reside; in which notice the party to whom the same is addressed shall be informed of the commitment of such child to the house of reception of this corporation, and shall be notified that unless taken therefrom in the manner prescribed by law, within ten days after the service of such notice, the child therein named will be committed to the asylum of this corporation. As amended by Laws of 1854, ch. 387. S 12. Such notice shall be served by the policeman detailed for that service, by delivering the same to the party to whom it shall have been addressed, personally, or by leaving it with some person of sufficient age, at the place of residence or business of such party; and it shall be the duty of such policeman immediately to report the fact; and the time and manner of such service to the magistrate (and enter in a book to be provided for that purpose and kept at the house of reception of the New York Juvenile Asylum the fact of having served such notice, the time and manner of such service, and the fact thus recorded shall in all cases be evidence of the proper service of such notice). As amended by Laws of 1854, ch. 387. CHAP. IV. delivered S 13. If the party to whom such notice shall have been Child when addressed, or any other person, shall, within the time therein up. specified, prove to the satisfaction of the magistrate issuing the same, that the circumstances of want and suffering, or other circumstances described in the eighteenth section of the aforesaid act, passed January 23d, 1833, under which such child shall have been found, have not been occasioned by the habitual neglect or misconduct of the parents or lawful guardian of such child, then it shall be the duty of such magistrate, by order in writing, addressed to the superintendent of the house of reception of this corporation, to direct such superintendent to deliver such child to the custody of the party named in such order, who shall thereupon be entitled to take such child from the said house of reception. to be re asylum. S 14. If such proof shall not be produced within the time when child above prescribed, it shall be the duty of the magistrate by moved to whom the child shall have been committed to the house of reception, to make and transmit to the superintendent thereof, a notice in writing to that effect, and thereupon the child named in such notice shall be removed from such house of reception to the asylum of this corporation. arrest of $15. If any child who has been previously arrested and Second delivered to the parent or guardian, as herein before provided, child. shall again be found in either of the conditions described in the eighteenth section of the act aforesaid, the magistrate before whom such child is brought, upon proof thereof, may forthwith make a final order for committing such child to the care and instruction of this corporation, without giving the notice provided for in section eleventh of this act. to be dis $ 16. If at any time after a child shall have been committed Child when to the said New York juvenile asylum, as above provided for charged. in this act, it shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of the board of directors of the said asylum that such child was on insufficient cause, false or deficient testimony, or otherwisc wrongfully or improvidently so committed, the said board of directors shall, on the application of the parents, guardians, or other protector of such child, discharge the child from the said asylum and restore it to such parents, guardian or protector; and also, if after a child shall have been properly committed to the said New York juvenile asylum, by virtue and in pursuance of the provisions of this act, any circumstances should occur, that in the judgment of the board of PART IV. Children unfit for asylum to directors of the said asylum would render expedient and proper a discharge of such child from the said asylum, having a due regard to the welfare of the child, and the purposes of the asylum, the said board of directors on the application of the parents, guardian or protector of such child, may, in their discretion, discharge the child from the said asylum and restore it to its parents, guardian or protector, on such reasonable conditions as the said board of directors may deem right and proper. $17. The said corporation shall have power, and it shall be their duty, whenever any child entrusted or committed to be returned. their charge, shall, by the commission of any infamous crime, or by confirmed habits of vagrancy, have become so degraded and debased as to be an improper subject for their care and management, to return such child to the committing magistrate, or other proper authorities, to be disposed of in due course of law. Binding out child ren. Indonture not to be assigned. Child may be reclaim treatment. S18. The said corporation shall have power, in its discretion, to bind out or indenture, as clerks or apprentices, to some profession, trade, or employment, the children entrusted or committed to its charge; and for a shorter or longer period, not exceeding, however, in the case of girls, the age of eighteen years; and, in that of boys, the age of twenty-one years. $ 19. No person receiving an apprentice under the provisions of this act, shall be at liberty to assign or transfer the indenture of apprenticeship, or to let out or hire for any period the services of such apprentice, without the consent in writing of the directors of this corporation. In case the master of such apprentice shall be dissatisfied with his or her conduct or behavior, or for any other cause, may desire to be relieved from said contract upon application, the said directors may, in their discretion cancel the said indenture of apprenticeship; and resume the charge and management of the child so apprenticed, and shall have the same power and authority in regard to it, as before the said indenture was made. S 20. If any master shall be guilty of any cruelty, mised for cruel usage, refusal or neglect to furnish necessary provisions or clothing, or any other violation of the terms of indenture or contract towards any such child so bound to service, such child may make complaint thereof to the board of directors of this corporation, or to two justices of the peace of the county in which such child is so bound to service, or to the mayor, recorder or aldermen of any city in which such child is bound to service, or to any two of them who shall summon the parties before them, and examine into, hear and determine the said complaint; and if upon such examination the said complaint shall appear well founded, they shall by certificate under their hands, discharge such child from his obligation of service, and restore him or her to the charge and management |