Chap. 548.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 884 and 885 of the Code of
Virginia, in relation to vagrancy, so as to define who are vagrants, and to pun-
ish persons convicted of vagrancy as for a misdemeanor, and to repeal section
886 of the Code of Virginia.

Approved January 2, 1904.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sections
eight hundred and eighty-four-and eight hundred and eighty-five of the
Code of Virginia be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 884. Who are vagrants.—T'he following persons shall be deemed
vagrants :

First. All persons who shall unlawfully return into any county or
corporation whence they have been legally removed.

Second. All persons who, not having wherewith to maintain them-
selves and their families, live idly and without employment, and refuse
to work for the usual and common wages given to other laborers in the
like work in the place where they then are.

Third. Persons wandering or strolling about in idleness who are able
to work and have no property to support them.

Fourth. Persons leading an idle, immoral, or profligate life, who have
no property to support them, and who are able to work, and do not.
Fifth. All able-bodied persons found begging for a living, or who quit
their houses and leave their wives or children without the means of sub-
sistence.

Sixth. All persons who shall come from any place without this Com-
monwealth to any place within it and shall be found loitering and re-
siding therein, and shall follow no labor, trade, occupation, or business,
and have no visible means of subsistence, and can give no reasonable ac-
count of themselves or their business in such place.

Seventh. All persons having a fixed abode who have no visible prop-
erty to support them, and who live by stealing or by trading or barter-
ing stolen property.

Eighth. All persons who are able to work and who do not work, but
hire out their minor children and live upon their wages.

§ 885. Vagrants; how dealt with, and so forth—lIt shall be, and is
hereby, made the duty of the sheriff and constables of every county, the
police, or town sergeants or other like officials in every city and town in
this State, to give information, under oath, to any officer empowered by
law to issue criminal warrants, of all vagrants within their knowledge
or persons whom they have good reason to suspect of being vagrants, in
their respective counties, cities, and towns; and thereupon, or upon the
complaint of any person upon oath, the said officer shall issue a warrant
for the arrest of the person alleged to be a vagrant, and he shall be
brought before any magistrate having jurisdiction of misdemeanors
within said county, city, or town, and upon conviction shall be punished
as for a misdemeanor: provided, however, that the magistrate may, in
his discretion, or the court before which the case may be tried on appeal
may, in its discretion, permit such person so convicted to give bond, with
sufficient security, in an amount not exceeding five hundred dollars nor
less than one hundred dollars, conditioned upon his future industry and
good conduct for one year; and upon giving such bond such person shall
be set at liberty without undergoing the punishment imposed by his
conviction: and provided, further, that it shall be a sufficient defense to
the charge of vagrancy under this and the preceding section that the de-
fendant has made reasonable bona fide efforts to obtain employment at
reasonable prices for his labor and has failed to obtain the same. ;

2. Section eight hundred and eighty-six of the Code of Virginia is
hereby repealed.

3. This act shall be in force from its passage.