1340 LAWS OF MARYLAND.

erset Counties, Maryland, not being insane, who has no visible
means of maintenance, from property or personal labor, or is not
permanently supported by his or her friends or relatives, who
lives idle; without employment; and every person who leads a
dissolute or disorderly course of life, and cannot give an account
of the means by which he or she procures a legitimate livelihood,
and every nomad, gypsy, or other person practicing that which
is commonly called fortune-telling by acts, signs or omens, for
value or otherwise, or any common gambler shall be deemed a
vagabond; and every person who habitually wanders about and
begs in the limits of Wicomico or Somerset Counties from house
to house, or sits or stands or takes a position in any place or begs
from passers-by; either by words or gestures, shall be deemed a
habitual beggar; and every person who wanders about and lodges
in outhouses, market places, barracks, sheds, barns, or in any
public building, or in the open air, and has no permanent place
of abode, or visible means, of maintenance, shall be deemed a
vagrant.

SEC. 2. And be it enacted, That every vagabond, habitual
beggar, vagrant or fortune-teller, mentioned in Section One,
of this Act, upon conviction before the Circuit Court for Wi-
comico or Somerset Counties, or before any Justice of the Peace
having criminal jurisdiction, shall be deemed guilty of a misde-
meanor, and shall be subject to a fine of not less than twenty-
five dollars ($25.00), nor more than one hundred dollars
($100.00), or be confined in the Maryland House of Correction
for a period of not less than two months, nor more than six
months, or both fine and imprisonment, within the discretion of
the Circuit Court or the Justice of the Peace; provided that any
person found to be a vagabond or an habitual beggar who may
not be able-bodied, but aged or infirm or seriously crippled, may
in the discretion of the Court or Justice of the Peace, be commit-
ted to the almshouse, or be paroled; and provided also that any
minor committed under this Act may be sent to any reformatory
institution to which minors may be committed under Article 27
of the Code of Public General Laws of Maryland or paroled in
the discretion of the Court or Justice of the Peace. Provided,
however, that if any person when brought before any such Jus-
tice of the Peace having jurisdiction in the case shall, before trial
for the alleged offense, pray a jury trial, or if the State's Attor-
ney for the County shall before trial pray a jury trial on the
part of the State, it shall be the duty of said Justice to commit
such alleged offender for trial, or to hold him to bail to appear