SEC. 5. At all the meetings of the board of directors, eight mem- Quorum.. bers 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.

to procure

building

SEC. 6. [Amended by sec. 1, chap. 547, Laws of 1853, so as to read Corporation as follows:] The corporation hereby created may, so soon as may be suitable practicable, procure suitable building sites and lands, and erect and sites. 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 sites 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.

children may be

SEC. 7. [Amended by chap. 387, Laws of 1854, to read as fol- What lows:] The said corporation may receive and take under its care taken. 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 trusted 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.

render of

SEC. 8. Children entrusted to this corporation by the voluntary Form of suract of their parents or guardians, shall be deemed to be in the law- child. ful 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 do years, born in hereby surrender and entrust to "The New York Juvenile Asylum," for the period of years, 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

commitment

to asylum.

Warrant for SEC. 9. [Amended by chap. 387, Laws of 1854, to read as folof children lows:] Whenever any child above the age of seven and under 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 discretion, 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.

"To A. B., oneof the policemenof the city of New York: You are hereby commanded to take charge of A. B., a child under the 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 its house of reception in this city, and, for so doing, this shall be your sufficient warrant. Dated this day of 18 ."

SEC. 10. 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.

to

parents or

SEC. 11. [Amended by chap. 387, Laws of 1854, to read as fol- Notice lows:] Immediately upon the making of any such order, the ma- guardians. gistrate 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.

SEC. 12. [Amended by chap. 387, Laws of 1854, to read as follows:] 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.

Service notice.

of

delivered up

SEC. 13. If the party to whom such notice shall have been ad- Child, when dressed, or any other person, shall, within the time therein 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

When child

to be moved asylum.

re

of the party named in such order, who shall thereupon be entitled to take such child from the said house of reception.

SEC. 14. If such proof shall not be produced within the time to above prescribed, it shall be the duty of the magistrate by 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.

Second rest child.

ar

of

Child, when

to

be dis

eharged.

Children anfit

asylum

for

SEC. 15. If any child, who has been previously arrested and delivered to the parent or guardian, as hereinbefore provided, 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.

SEC. 16. If, at any time after a child shall have been committed to the said New York Juvenile Asylum, as above provided for 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 otherwise wrongfully or improvidently so committed, the said board of directors shall, on the application of the parents, guardian, 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 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.

SEC. 17. The said corporation shall have power, and it shall be to their duty, whenever any child entrusted or committed to their be returned. charge, shall, by the commission of any infamous crime, or by con

firmed habits of vagrancy, have become so degraded and debased as to be an improper subject for their care and management, to re

turn such child to the committing magistrate, or other proper authorities, to be disposed of in due course of law.

children.

SEC. 18. The said corporation shall have power, in its discre- Binding out tion, to bind out or indenture, as clerks or apprentices, to some profession, trade, or employment, the children entrusted or com. mitted 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.

not to be as

SEC. 19. No person receiving an apprentice under the provisions Indentures of this act, shall be at liberty to assign or transfer the indenture of signed. 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.

may

be reclaimed

treatment.

SEC. 20. If any master shall be guilty of any cruelty, misusage, Child refusal or neglect to furnish necessary provisions or clothing, or for cruel 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 of this corporation in the same manner, and with like powers as before the indenture of such child.

against

prentices

trade.

SEC. 21. No person shall accept from any journeyman or ap- Prohibitio prentice, indentured as aforesaid, any contract or agreement, nor binding apcause him or her to be bound by oath or otherwise during his or not to set up her term of service, that such journeyman or apprentice shall not set up his or her trade, profession or employment in any particular place, shop or cellar; nor shall any person exact from any journeyman or apprentice, after his or her term of service is expired, any