604 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [CH. 334

for the payment of any loans of the Mayor and City Council
of Baltimore.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That this Act is hereby
declared to be an emergency law and necessary for the imme-
diate preservation of the public health or safety, and passed
upon a yea and nay vote supported by three-fifths of all the
members elected to each of the two Houses of the General
Assembly.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That this Act shall take
effect from the date of Its passage.

Approved April 5, 1927.

CHAPTER 334.

AN ACT to punish and make it a misdemeanor for any person
without just cause to abandon, desert and wilfully neglect
to provide for his wife or minor child or children, or for
any person charged by law with the care, custody or control
of any minor child who abandons such child or neglects to
provide support and maintenance therefor, in Allegany
County; fixing the penalty therefor and the jurisdiction of
the Court in reference to the same.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Mary-
land, That any person in Allegany County, who shall without
just cause desert or wilfully neglect to provide support and
maintenance for his wife or minor child or children as the
case may be, and any person charged by law with the care, cus-
tody, support or maintenance of any minor child or children,
who abandons such minor or fails or refuses to provide sup-
port and maintenance for such minor, shall be deemed guilty of
a misdemeanor, and upon conviction in the Circuit Court for
Allegany County or before the Justice of the Peace designated
as Magistrate for Juvenile Cases for Allegany County, shall
be punished by a fine not exceeding Five Hundred Dollars or
confinement in the County Jail for Allegany County for not
more than one year, or both fine and imprisonment in the dis-
cretion of the Court; said fine when paid, may be directed by
the Court to be paid to and for the use of the wife, minor
child or children, either in whole or in part, in which said case
payment shall be made through the Court in such installments
as the Court may deem right and proper; provided, however.