Vagrant

s One who wanders about, and has no certain calling; an idle fellow; * a vagabond; a tramp, q. v. A person who roams about from place to place, begging, or living without labor or visible means of support.'' Any person going about from place to place begging, asking or subsisting upon charity, and for the purpose of acquiring money or a living, and who shall have no fixed place of residence or lawful occupation in the county or city in which he shall be arrested, shall be taken and deemed to be a tramp and guilty of a misdemeanor.* Any act of begging or vagrancy is prima facie evidence.* Vagrancy is distinct from disorderly conduct and breach of the peace, and includes only such cases of vagabondage as are known to the common law.^ Such statutes, designed to suppress vagrancy, as are in derogation of the right of trial by jury, are to be strictly construed." See Conviction, Summary. A statute authorizing two overseers of the poor, by writing, under their hands, to commit vagrants and paupers to the work-house, is in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment."

See Process, 1, Of law. ■ Conkling v. Eidgely, 112 111.

36, 40, 43 (1884), Sheldon, J. 2 2 Bl. Com. 157; 21 N. T. 344. * L. vagari, to wander. » [Jacob's Law Diet. » Penn. Act, 1879, No. 81. * See Del. Laws, 1879, No. 223; North Car. Laws, 1879, No. 355; Ohio Act, 1879, No. 191; Mary. Laws, 1880, No. 43; Mass. Laws, 1880, No. 231, o. 257, §§ 8-3; 1 N. T. Laws, 1880, No. 296. ' Re Way, 41 Mich. 301 (1879), Campbell, C. J. * Bullock V. Geomble, 46 111. 222 (1867); People v. Turner, 55 id. 287 (1870); Wynehamer v. People, 13 JI. Y. 426 (1856); 41 Mich. 303, supra. 'Portland v. Bangor, 65 Me. 120 (1876). See also Idleness in any person whatsoever is a higli offense against public economy... Idle persons or vagabonds, whom ancient statutes describe to be " such as wake on the night and sleep on the day, haunt customable taverns and ale-houses, and routs about, and no man wot whence they come nor whither they go," or such as are more particulai-Iy described by 17 Geo. II (1T44), c. 5, as idle and disorderly persons, rogues and vagabonds, and Incorrigible rogues, are all offenders against good order. • Statute 5 Geo. IV (1825), c. 83, revised and codified previous laws, and has been known as the Eng Ush Vagrant's Act. Amendments were made by 1 and 2 Vict. (1837), c. 38. These acts form the basis of similar legislation in some of our States. By force of various statutes, rogues and vagabonds are: persons convicted a second time as idle and disorderly; fortune-tellers, and such as use subtle arts to deceive; persons wandering abroad, lodging in barns or out-houses, in the open air, or in any tent, cart, or wagon, not having any visible means of subsistence, and not giving good account of tliemselves; persons guilty of indecent exposures — by pictures, or of the person; persons exposing wounds, or making fraudulent pretenses, to obtain alms; persons deserting their families or children, leaving them chargeable to the parish; persons playing or betting in a place to which the public have access, with any instrument of gaming; persons armed or prepared to commit a felony: persons found on premises for an unlawful purpose; reputed thieves, in a public place, intending to commit felony."