Chap. 99.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section twenty of chap-
ter fifty-one of Code of 1873, relating to beggars and vagrants.

Approved February 8, 1886.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
section twenty, chapter fifty-one, of the Code of Virginia,
eighteen hundred and seventy-three, be amended and re-
enacted, so as to read as follows:

§ 20. The overseers of the poor, or other officers having
charge of the poor, or the special county police, or the police
of any corporation, or any one or more of such persons, or any
person upon whose premises such vagrant may be found, shall
be and hereby are empowered and required, upon discovering
any vagrant or vagrants within their respective counties or cor-
porations, or upon their premises, to make information thereof
to any justice of the peace of their county or corporation, and
to require a warrant for apprehending such vagrant or vagrants,
to be brought before him, or some other justice; and if upon
examination it shall appear that the person or persons are
within the true description of a vagrant, as hereinafter men-
tioned, such justice shall, by warrant under his hand, order
such vagrant or vagrants to be employed in labor for any term,
not exceeding three months, and by aconstable of such county
or corporation to be hired out for the best wages that can be
procured, to be applied, except as hereafter provided, for the
use of the vagrant or his family, as ordered by the justice; and
if any such vagrant or vagrants shall, during such time of ser-
vice, without sufficient cause, run away from the person so em-
ploying him or them, he or they shall be apprehended, on the
warrant of a justice, and returned to the custody of such hirer,
who shall have, free of any further hire, the services of said
vagrant for one month, in addition to the original term of hir-
ing; and said employer shall then have the power, if authorized
by the justice, to work said vagrant confined with ball and
chain; or should said hirer decline to receive again said va-
grant, then said vagrant shall be taken by the officer, upon the
order of a justice, to the poor or workhouse, if there be any
such in said county or corporation, and be delivered to the
overseer or superintendent, who shall work said vagrant for
the benefit of said county or corporation; or, if authorized by
the justice, to work him, confined with the ball and chain, for
the period for which he would have had to serve his late em-
ployer had he consented to receive him again; or, should there
be, when said runaway vagrant is apprehended, any public
work going on in said county or corporation, then said va-
grant, upon the order of a justice, shall be delivered over by
said officer to the superintendent of such public work, who
shall, for the like last mentioned period, work said vagrant on
said public works, confined with ball and chain, if so author-
ized by the justice. But if there be no poor or workhouse in
said county or corporation, and no public work then in pro-
gress therein, then, in that event, said justice may cause said
vagrant to be delivered to any person who will take charge of
him, said person to have his services free of charge, except
maintenance, for a like last mentioned period; and said person
so receiving said vagrant is hereby empowered, if authorized
by the justice, to work said vagrant confined with ball and
chain; or should no such person be found, then said vagrant
is to be committed to the county or corporation jail, there to
be confined for the like period, and fed on bread and water.
But the persons described as the fifth class of vagrants, in the
second section of this act, may be arrested without warrant by
the special county or corporation police, and when so arrested
shall be taken before a justice, who shall proceed to dispose of
them in the mode prescribed in this section, or may at once di-
rect them to be committed to prison for a period not exceeding
three months, to be kept in close confinement and fed on bread
and water.
2. This act shall be in force from its passage.