ART. 27] THIEVES AND PICKPOCKETS. 451

thief or pickpocket shall prevent any such person from being tried and
convicted for any particular act of larceny he may have committed.

To justify a conviction under this section, there must be proof either of
fact or reputation sufficient to satisfy the jury that the traverser is by
practice and habit a thief. The offense prohibited by this section is a
misdemeanor and must be prosecuted within one year. The record of the
traveller's conviction of the larceny of a watch within a year before the
prosecution was begun is a link in the chain tending to prove the issue;
its legal effect is for the jury. Evidence of the reputation of the accused
commencing more than a year before the indictment is admissible, but
would not justify a conviction unless followed up by proof that such repu-
tation was borne within a year before the indictment. Character and repu-
tation are synonymous terms. A conviction of the accused for winning a
watch by a fraudulent trick at cards, held not evidence. This section
strictly construed. World v. State, 50 Md. 54.
As to larceny, see section 285, et seq.

1904, art. 27. sec. 393. 1S8S, art. 27, sec. 256. 1864, ch. 38.
445. If any person shall be arrested at any place on the line of the
Baltimore and Ohio railroad, or 011 the line of the Northern Central
railroad, or on the line of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore
railroad, or the Baltimore and Potomac railroad, or the Western Mary-
land railroad, or any other railroad running out of Baltimore city, or
in any of the cars or depots, or at any of the stations on said roads, or
on any ferry boat employed to carry passengers over any part of said
roads and within the limits of this State, charged with being a common
thief or pickpocket, such person may be taken before any justice of the
peace of the county in which said place, or depot or station may be
situated; or if such person be arrested in any car or on any ferry boat,
before any justice of the peace of the nearest convenient county or of
the city of Baltimore;* and such justice shall on proof as provided in
the preceding section commit or bail such person for trial before the
circuit court for the county, or the criminal court of Baltimore, as the
case may be; and all police officers of Baltimore city, and all conductors
of trains and police employed by any of said railway companies, and
all constables and bailiffs of any county or city on the lines of said
roads shall arrest all such persons at any of the places aforesaid on
the same knowledge and proof of their being common thieves or pick-
pockets as provided in the preceding section, and the said justice shall
commit or bail such persons on the same knowledge or proof. Any
person convicted in any county on the line of said roads with being a
common pickpocket shall be punished by fine or imprisonment in the
jail of the county for the same time and in the same amount as provided
in the preceding section; and all the provisions of the preceding sections
shall apply to all cases under this section, except so far as altered by
this section.

See note to section 444.

*Station house justice.