2928 ARTICLE 13.

persons, or is growing up in idleness or crime, or knowingly frequents any
gambling places, or patronizes liquor or beer saloons unaccompanied by
a parent or guardian, or is guilty of indecent, immoral and lascivious
conduct.

1916, ch. 680, sec. 161.

179. All such children described in the aforegoing section, and resid-.
ing in Harford County, are declared to be wards of the State, and the
Judges of the Courts of the Third Judicial Circuit of Maryland, sitting
as a Court of Equity, shall have full power to deal with such children
when brought before such court and full jurisdiction over the disposition
of such child or children. And the said Court shall have the power to
designate one of its Judges to hear, determine and dispose of all such
cases, and to adopt such rules and regulations for the trial and disposition
of such cases as to said Court, may seem reasonable and proper.

1916, ch. 680, sec. 162.

180. Any person of respectable standing in his or her community, and
being a resident of said County, or the agent of any society incorporated
under the laws of this State for the care and protection of children, may
file with the Clerk of the Circuit Court for Harford County on the equity
side thereof, a petition in writing, setting forth that a certain child or
children, naming the same, if the name or names be known, and also
naming the parent or parents of such child, if there be parent or parents,
or the name of the custodian of such child or children, if there be such
custodian, and the place or places of residence of such child or children,
their parents or other custodian, is or are delinquent, dependent or neg-
lected, as defined in Section 178 of this Article, and that it is for the
interests of such child or children, and the State of Maryland, that it or
they be taken from its or their parent or parents, guardian or custodian,
and placed under the jurisdiction of the Equity Court for Harford Coun-
ty, together with such other pertinent facts, if any, as the petitioner may
think proper to state. The Clerk of the Circuit Court for Harford County
shall file and preserve such petition and all papers relating to such peti-
tion, and docket such case, wherein the petitioner shall be named as plain-
tiff, and the child or children, its or their parent or parents, guardian, or
custodian, when named, shall be made defendants in such case. It shall
be the duty of the said Clerk to provide a suitable book or docket, to be
styled the "Juvenile Docket," which shall be carefully kept in his office
and in which shall be entered all such cases and the proceedings therein
briefly as in the Equity Docket of his office.

1916, ch. 680, sec. 163.

181. The said Clerk shall immediately upon the filing of the petition
and making the proper docket entries as provided in the preceding Sec-
tion, call the attention of the Court to the same, and it shall be the duty
of the Court, or in the event of the designation of one of the Judges of
said Court to investigate and pass on such cases, it shall be the duty of