540 LAWS OF MARYLAND.

Thieves and Pickpockets.

783. It shall be the duty of all police officers in Baltimore
City to arrest and take before some one of the station-house
Justices in Baltimore City, all persons whom they shall find in
any passenger railway car, or in or about any railway depot in
Baltimore City, or in any place of public amusement, or in any
street of the City, who they shall know or have good reason to
believe are common thieves or pickpockets, and said Justices
shall commit or bail such persons for trial before the Criminal
Court; and if any person in Baltimore City shall be charged on
oath before any station-house Justice of the Peace in Baltimore
City, or before th? Judge of the Criminal Court, with being a
common thief or pickpocket, such Justice or Judge shall issue
a warrant for the arrest of such person, and commit or bail him
for trial; and any person convicted in the Criminal Court of
Baltimore of being a common thief or common pickpocket,
shall be imprisoned in jail not more than two years nor less than
six months, and be fined not more than one hundred dollars;
but if any person is arrested a second time, or more, for such
offence, he shall be convicted only on proof that he has con-
tinued to be a common thief or pickpocket for at least one
month since his last conviction or acquittal, and it shall be
necessary to charge in the indictment only that the person is a
common thief or common pickpocket; and any evidence either
of facts or reputation proving that such person is habitually and
by practice a thief or pickpocket shall be sufficient for his con-
viction, if satisfactorily establishing the fact to the court or jury
by whom he is tried; and there shall be no discretion in any
police officer or Justice of the Peace to discharge or release any
person who is by such proof before them, or knowledge on their
part, shown to be a thief or pickpocket as aforesaid, but such
person shall be bailed or committed for trial, and no conviction
or charge of, or for being a common thief or pickpocket, shall
prevent any such person from being tried and convicted for any
particular act of larceny he may have committed.