No. 84.

AN ACT

To provide for the more efficient collection of delinquent taxes and municipal claims in cities of the fourth and fifth classes, and for the preservation of the lien of the same. SECTION 1. Be it enacted, &c., That in all cities of the fourth and fifth classes in this Cammonwealth, the officer and officers having charge of the collection of municipal taxes and of municipal claims for sewering, paving, laying of sidewalks, guttering, curbing, abatement of nuisances, or for any other purpose, shall, on or before the first day of January of each year, return to the councils of such cities a list of taxables who have neglected or refused to pay their taxes for the year then current in whole or in part, or who have neglected or refused, for three months or more, to pay any municipal claims duly assessed against them during the current year, together with the amount of the tax or claim from each individual then remaining unpaid.

SECTION 2. Whenever such tax has been levied upon the valuation of any real estate, and in all cases of such municipal claims, it shall be the duty of the councils of the cities, on or before the first day of the ensuing April, to cause to be filed in the office of the prothonotary of the county a description of the real estate on the basis of which the claim was incurred or the tax was levied, setting forth:

First. The ward of the city in which the street, on which and between which the land is located.

Second. The approximate frontage of the land upon the street or streets, the owners or reputed owners of the adjoining lands fronting on the street or streets, the general character of the chief building or buildings thereon, according to their use, whether the same be for dwelling, mercantile, manu facturing, or for other purposes.

Third. The name of the taxable to whom the same was assessed. Fourth. The amount of tax or claims for which the lien is entered. SECTION 3. It shall be the duty of the prothonotary to enter a record of such returns and description at length upon a docket, to be known as the tax-lien docket, and to index it against the taxable in a special index, and thereafter the amount of the tax, with interest and one dollar costs to be paid the prothonotary, and two dollars costs in favor of the city, shall be and remain a lien upon the land described during a period of five years, unless sooner paid.

SECTION 4. No judicial sale upon any judgment, mortgage, mechanics', or other lien shall have the effect of discharging any lien provided for by this act beyond the extent to which it shall actually be paid out of the proceeds of such sale on account of such tax or municipal lien, and it shall be entitled to priority of distribution.

SECTION 5. The city may at any time during the life of any such lien proceed to enforce its collection by a writ of scire facias, and thereupon may proceed to final judgment, execution and sale of the land in the manner provided by the laws of this Commonwealth, in proceedings by scire facias upon mechanics' liens.

SECTION 6. All acts of Assembly inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed: Provided, That this act shall only apply to such cities as shall accept the provisions hereof by ordinance duly adopted by the councils thereof and approved by the mayor, and a certified copy of which ordinance shall

be recorded in the office of the recorder of deeds in the county in which such city is situate.

To prohibit the peddling, selling, or hawking of produce and merchandise in cities of the fourth and fifth classes in this Commonwealth without a license.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted, &c., That no person or persons shall be employed, engaged, or concerned in the business or employment of hawking, peddling, or selling produce or merchandise, or either or any of them, within the limits of any city of the fourth and fifth classes within this Commonwealth without having previously taken out a license, and if any person or persons shall go from house to house within the limits of such cities to sell, or offer, or expose for sale such articles or any of them without having paid such sum or sums as may be fixed by ordinance of councils of such cities into the treasury thereof and received a license therefor, the person or persons so offending shall forfeit and pay for each and every offense the sum of fifty dollars, to be recovered summarily before the mayor or police magistrate of such city wherein the offense shall have been committed: Provided, however, That nothing herein contained shall be construed so as to prohibit farmers, gardeners, or dairymen from selling the products of their own farms, gardens, or dairies.

SECTION 2. Councils of the cities of the fourth and fifth classes, after the approval of this act, shall be empowered to fix by ordinance the amount to be paid for a license and the time the same shall be granted for, and prescribe and regulate the manner of payment thereof into the treasury of such cities.

SECTION 3. This act shall not be in operation nor shall it go into effect in any city of the fourth and fifth classes until councils accept the same by ordinance.

JAMES L. GRAHAM,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

CHAUNCEY F. BLACK,

President of the Senate.

No. 86.

AN ACT

Providing for the incorporation and government of cities of the fourth class in this Commonwealth; regulating the passage of ordinances authorizing the increase of indebtedness and the creation of a sinking fund to redeem the same; providing for the assessment and collection of taxes; defining and punishing certain offenses, and providing for the making of contracts for supplies and work for said cities.

ARTICLE I.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted, &c., That for the exercise of certain corporate powers, and having respect to the number, character, powers, and duties of certain officers thereof, the cities now in existence or hereafter to be incorporated in this Commonwealth, and having in population less than thirty thousand and exceeding twelve thousand, and designated by existing laws as cities of the fourth class and coming under the provisions of this act, shall be bodies corporate and politic, and shall have perpetual succession, and shall have power

I. To sue and be sued.

II. To purchase and hold real and personal property for the use of the city.

III. To lease or to sell and to convey any real or personal property owned by the city, and to make such order respecting the same as may be conducive to the interests of the city.

IV. To make all contracts and do all other acts in relation to property and affairs of the city necessary to the exercise of its corporate or administrative powers.

V. To have and use a corporate seal and alter the same at pleasure, and every such seal shall have upon it the word "Pennsylvania," the name of the city, and date of incorporation.

VI. To exercise such other and further powers as are or may be conferred by law.

The powers hereby granted shall be exercised by the mayor and councils of such cities in the manner hereinafter provided.

ARTICLE II.

CORPORATE POWERS.

SECTION 1. The mayor and councils of each of said cities governed by this act shall have the care, management, and control of the city and its finances, and shall have the power to enact and ordain any and all ordinances not repugnant to the Constitution and laws of this State or of the Constitution of the United States, and such as it shall deem expedient for the good government of the city and preservation of the peace and good order, the suppression of vice and immorality, the benefit of trade and commerce, and the health of the inhabitants thereof, and such other ordinances, rules, and regulations as may be necessary to carry such powers into effect and the same to alter, modify, or repeal at pleasure.

The said cities coming under the provisions of this act in their corporate capacities are authorized and empowered to enact ordinances for the following purposes, in addition to the other powers granted by this act :

Clause 1. To levy and collect taxes for general revenue purposes, not to exceed ten mills on the dollar in any one year on all the real, personal, and

mixed property within the limits of said cities taxable according to the laws of the State of Pennsylvania, the valuation of such property to be taken from the assessed valuation of the taxable property therein made under the provisions of law regulating the same.

Clause 2. To open and improve streets, avenues, and alleys, make sidewalks, and build bridges, culverts, and sewers within the city, and for the purpose of paying for the same, shall have power to provide for the payment of the same from the general revenue or by assessments on real estate benefited thereby, or both.

Clause 3. To impose a poll-tax not exceeding one dollar on all ablebodied males between the ages of twenty-one and fifty years.

Clause 4. To levy and collect license tax on auctioneers, contractors, druggists, hawkers, peddlers, bankers, brokers, pawnbrokers, merchants of all kinds, grocers, confectioners, restaurants, butchers, taverns, public boardinghouses, dram shops, saloons, liquor sellers, billiard tables, bowling alleys, and other gaming tables, drays, hacks, carriages, omnibuses, carts, wagons, street railroad cars, and other vehicles used in the city for pay, lumber dealers, furniture dealers, saddle or harness dealers, stationers, jewelers, livery stable-keepers, pavement stands, express companies or agencies, telephone, telegraph companies or agencies, shows, theaters, skating-rinks, and all kinds of exhibitions for pay, and regulate the same by ordinance. Clause 5. To restrain, prohibit, and suppress tippling shops, billiard tables, bowling alleys, houses of prostitution and other disorderly houses and practices, games and gambling houses, desecration of the Sabbath day, commonly called Sunday, and all kinds of public indecencies.

Clause 6. To make regulations to prevent the introduction of contagious diseases into the city, to make quarantine laws for that purpose and enforce the same within five miles of the city.

Clause 7. To erect, establish, and regulate hospitals, work-houses, and poor-houses, and to provide for the government and support of the same. Clause 8. To make regulations to secure the general health of the city and to remove and prevent nuisances.

Clause 9. To have at all times the right to supply with water the city, and such persons, partnerships, and corporations therein as may desire the same at such prices as may be agreed upon, and for that purpose to have at all times the unrestricted right to make, erect, and maintain all proper water-works, machinery, buildings, cisterns, reservoirs, pipes, and conduits for the raising, conveyance, and distribution of water, or to make contracts with and authorize any person, company, or association to erect all proper water works, machinery, buildings, cisterns, reservoirs, pipes, and conduits for the raising, reception, conveyance, and distribution of water, and give such persons, company, or association the privilege of furnishing water as aforesaid for any length of time not exceeding ten years.

Clause 10. To establish, regulate, and support night-watch and police and define the powers and duties of the same.

Clause 11. To provide for and regulate the lighting of the streets with gas, electric lights, or otherwise.

Clause 12. To purchase and own grounds for and to erect and establish market-houses and market-places, and to regulate and govern the same, and also to contract with any person or persons, or associations of persons, companies or corporations for the erection and regulation of said markethouses or market-places, on such terms and conditions and in such manner as the council may prescribe, and raise all necessary revenue therefor as herein provided, and also to levy and collect a license tax not to exceed

twenty-five cents per day from each person occupying streets and sidewalks for market purposes aforesaid; the space each may occupy shall be regulated by ordinance.

Clause 13. To provide for the erection and government of any and all useful and necessary buildings for the official use of the city.

Clause 14. To provide by ordinance for the erection or purchase of lockups or watch-houses in some convenient part of said city for the detainer and confining of vagrants and persons arrested by the police officers until the persons so arrested shall be taken before the proper magistrate for hearing, and committed to prison or discharged; but no person shall be detained in said watch-house for a longer time than twenty-four hours, except upon the order of a magistrate, legally authorized, who may commit such person for further hearing.

Clause 15. To provide for removing officers of the city for misconduct. whose offices are created and made elective by this act, and shall have power to create any office they may deem necessary for the good government and interest of the city.

Clause 16. To regulate the police of the city and to impose fines, forfeitures, and penalties for the breach of any ordinance; also for the recovery and collection of the same, and in default of payment to provide for confinement in the city prison or to hard labor in the city upon the streets or elsewhere for the benefit of the city.

Clause 17. To regulate and prescribe the powers and duties and compensation of all officers of the city.

Clause 18. To require from all officers and agents, elected or appointed, bonds and security for the faithful performance of their duties.

Clause 19. To have the exclusive right at all times to supply with gas or other light the said city, and the right to supply with gas or other light such persons, partnerships, and corporations therein as may desire the same at such prices as may be agreed upon, and also at all times to have the unrestricted right to make, erect, and maintain the necessary buildings, machinery, and apparatus for manufacturing and distributing the same, or to make contracts with, and authorize any person, company, or association so to do, and to give to such person, company, or association the privilege of supplying gas or other light as aforesaid for any length of time not exceeding ten years.

Clause 20. To establish, alter, or change the channels of water courses, and to wall them and cover them over, to establish, make, and regulate public wells, cisterns, aqueducts, and reservoirs of water, and to provide for filling the same.

Clause 21. To regulate the running at large of cattle, hogs, horses, mules, sheep, goats, dogs, and other animals, and to cause such as may be running at large to be impounded and sold, to discharge the costs and pen alties provided for the violation of such prohibitions, and the expenses of impounding and keeping the same and of such sale, to regulate and pro vide for taxing the owners and harborers of dogs, and to destroy dogs found at large contrary to any ordinances regulating the same.

Clause 22. To provide for the erection of all needful pens, pounds, and buildings for the use of the city within or without the city limits, and to appoint and compensate keepers thereof and to establish and enforce rules governing the same.

Clause 23. To regulate the construction of and order the suppression of and cleaning of fire-places, chimneys, stoves, stove-pipes, ovens, boilers, kettles, forges, or any apparatus used in any building, manufactory, or