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DISORDERLY PERSONS.

All persons who abandon or neglect to support their wives or children, or who threaten to run away and leave their wives or children a burden on the public; all persons pretending to tell fortunes, or where lost or stolen goods may be found; all common prostitutes; all keepers of bawdy-houses, or houses for the resort of prostitutes, drunkards, tipplers, gamesters, or other disorderly persons; all persons who have no visible profession or calling to maintain themselves by, but who do for the most part support themselves by gaming; all jugglers, common showmen, and mountebanks, who exhibit or perform for profit any

all

puppet-show, wire or rope dance, or other idle shows, acts, or feats; persons who keep in any public highway or place, or in any place where spirituous liquors are sold, any kenotable, wheel of fortune, thimbles, or other table, box, machine, or device for the purpose of gaming; all persons who go about with such table, wheel, or other machine or device exhibiting tricks or gaming therewith; all persons who play in public streets or highways with cards, dice, or any other instrument or device for gaming,- -are deemed disorderly persons. There are some others designated by special statutes as disorderly persons.

TRAMPS.

All persons who rove about from place to place begging, and all vagrants living without labour or visible means of support, who stroll over the country without lawful occasion, are held to be tramps; but persons under the age of sixteen years, blind persons, and persons roving within the limits of the county in which they reside, are not included. Every tramp, upon conviction as such, is imprisoned at hard labour in the nearest penitentiary, for not more than six months, the expense during such imprisonment not to exceed $1 a-week per capita, to be paid by the state. Any act of vagrancy by any person not a resident of the state is

evidence that the person committing the same is a tramp. Any tramp who enters any building against the will of the owner or occupant thereof, or who wilfully or maliciously injures the person or property of another, or is found carrying any firearms, or other dangerous weapon, or burglar's tools, or threatens to do any injury to any person, or to the real or personal property of another, is deemed guilty of a felony. Any person, being a resident of the town where the offence is committed, may, upon view of any such offence, apprehend the offender, and take him before a justice of the peace or other competent authority.

MARRIAGE.

Marriage in the State of New York is, so far as its validity in law is concerned, a civil contract, to which the consent of parties capable in law of contracting is essential. It is in

cestuous and absolutely void between parents and children, including grandparents and grandchildren of every degree, and between brothers and sisters, as well of the half as of the

whole blood, and whether the rela- | priest, the ceremony is according to

tionship is legitimate or illegitimate. When either of the parties to a marriage is incapable, for want of age or understanding, of consenting to a marriage, or is incapable from physical causes of entering into the marriage state, or when the consent of either party has been obtained by force or fraud, the marriage is void from the time its nullity is declared by a court of competent authority. A second or subsequent marriage contracted by any person during the lifetime of any former husband or wife is absolutely void, unless (1) such former marriage has been annulled or dissolved for some cause other than the adultery of such person; or (2) such former husband or wife has been finally sentenced to imprisonment for life. But if any person, whose husband or wife has absented himself or herself for the space of five consecutive years, without being known to such person to be living during that time, marries during the lifetime of such absent husband or wife, the marriage is void only from the time that its nullity is pronounced by a court of competent authority. No pardon granted to any person who has been sentenced to imprisonment for life in this state is deemed to restore such person to the rights of any previous marriage, or to the guardianship of any children the issue of such marriage.

For the purpose of being registered and authenticated, marriages are solemnised only by the following per

sons:

1. Ministers of the Gospel and priests of every denomination. 2. Mayors, recorders, and aldermen of cities.

3. Judges of the county courts and

justices of the peace.

4. Justices and judges of courts of record.

When solemnised by a minister or

the forms and customs of the church or society to which he belongs. When solemnised by a magistrate, no particular form is required except that the parties shall solemnly declare, in the presence of the magistrate and the attending witness or witnesses, that they take each other as husband and wife. In every case there shall be at least one witness besides the minister or magistrate present at the ceremony. It is the duty of every officiating minister, priest, or magistrate to ascertain (1) the Christian and surnames of the parties, their respective places of residence, and that they are of sufficient age to be capable in law of contracting marriage; (2) the names and places of residence of two of the attesting witnesses, if more than one be present, or of the one present; and he shall enter these facts, and the day on which the marriage is solemnised, in a book kept by him for that purpose. If either of the parties between whom the marriage is to be solemnised is not personally known to him, the minister or magistrate shall ascertain from the respective parties their right to contract marriage, and for that purpose he may examine the parties, or either of them, or any other person, under oath, which he is authorised to administer, which examination is reduced to writing, and subscribed by the parties; and either of the parties making a false statement under this oath is deemed guilty of wilful and corrupt perjury, and is liable therefor. Every minister or magistrate who solemnises a marriage where either of the parties, within his knowledge, is under the age of legal consent, or an idiot or lunatic, or to which, within his knowledge, any legal impediment exists, is deemed guilty of a misdemeanour, punishable by fine or imprisonment, or both, in the discretion of the court by which

he is tried. The minister or magis- | trate by whom the marriage was solemnised furnishes, on request, to either party a certificate thereof, which, besides other particulars, shall state that, after due inquiry made, there appeared no lawful impediment to such marriage, and shall be signed by the person making it. Every such certificate signed by a magistrate, if presented to the clerk of the city or town where the marriage was solemnised, or to the clerk of the city or town where either of the parties reside, within six months after the marriage, is filed by such clerk, and entered in a book provided by him, in the alphabetical order of the names of both the parties, and in the order of time in which it is filed. A certificate signed by a minister may be likewise filed and recorded if there be indorsed thereon, or annexed thereto, a certificate of any magistrate residing in the same county with such clerk, setting forth that the minister by whom the certificate is signed is personally known to such magistrate, and has acknowledged the execution of the certificate in his presence; or that the execution of such certificate by a minister or priest of some religious denomination was proved to such magistrate by the oath of a person known to him, and who saw the certificate executed. Every such original certificate, the original entry thereof made as described, and a copy of the certificate or entry, duly certified, is received in all courts and places as presumptive evidence of the fact of such marriage.

These provisions relating to the solemnisation and proof of marriages do not apply to the people called Quakers, or to the Jews, whose marriages may respectively continue to be solemnised in the manner and agreeably to the regulations of their respective societies. Nor are these provisions construed to require the

parties to any marriage, or any minister or magistrate, to solemnise the same in the manner described; but all lawful marriages contracted in the manner previous in use in this state are as valid as if these provisions had not been passed. (Laws of 1850, chap. 320.)

By the code of civil procedure, an action may be maintained by the woman to procure a judgment, declaring a marriage contract void, and annulling the marriage, under the following circumstances:

1. Where the plaintiff had not attained the age of fourteen years at the time of the marriage.

2. Where the marriage took place without the consent of her father, mother, guardian, or other person having the legal charge of her person.

3. Where it was not followed by consummation or cohabitation, and was not ratified by any mutual assent of the parties after the plaintiff attained the age of fourteen years.

A judgment may be procured declaring a marriage contract void, and annulling the marriage, for either of the following causes existing at the time of the marriage :

1. That one or both of the parties had not attained the age of legal

consent.

2. That the former husband or wife of one of the parties was living, and that the marriage with the former husband or wife was then in force.

3. That one of the parties was an idiot or a lunatic.

4. That the consent of one of the parties was obtained by force, fear, or fraud.

5. That one of the parties was physically incapable of entering into the marriage state. But an action can be maintained under this subdivision only where the incapacity continues and is incurable.

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DIVORCE.

By reason of the defendant's adultery, the marriage may be dissolved and a judgment procured to that effect in an action at the instance of either husband or wife

1. Where both parties were residents of the state when the offence was committed.

2. Where the parties were married within this state.

3. Where the plaintiff was a resident of the state when the offence was committed, and is a resident thereof when the action is commenced.

4. Where the offence was committed within the state, and the injured party, when the action is commenced, is a resident of the state.

The plaintiff is not entitled to a divorce, although the adultery is established

1. Where the offence was committed by the procurement or with the connivance of the plaintiff.

2. Where the offence charged has been forgiven by the plaintiff. The forgiveness may be proved either affirmatively or by the voluntary cohabitation of the parties, with the knowledge of the fact.

3. Where there has been no express forgiveness and no voluntary cohabitation of the parties, but the action was not commenced within five years after the discovery by the plaintiff of the offence charged.

4. Where the plaintiff has also been guilty of adultery, under such circumstances that the defendant would have been entitled if innocent to a divorce.

Where the action is brought by the wife, the legitimacy of any child of the marriage, born or begotten before the commencement of the action, is not affected by the judgment dissolving the marriage; and the court may

in the final judgment require the defendant to provide suitably for the education and maintenance of the children of the marriage, and for the support of the plaintiff, as justice requires, having regard to the circumstances of the respective parties. The defendant loses all right and interest in his wife's property, real or personal, absolute or contingent, before or after her death; but the plaintiff's inchoate right of dower in any real property of which the defendant is or was theretofore seized is not affected by the judgment.

When the action is brought by the husband, the legitimacy of a child, born or begotten before the commencement of the offence charged, is not affected by a judgment dissolving the marriage; but the legitimacy of any other child of the wife may be determined as one of the issues in the action. In the absence of proof to the contrary, the legitimacy of all the children begotten before the commencement of the action must be presumed. A judgment dissolving the marriage leaves intact the plaintiff's rights and interests in or to any real or personal property owned or possessed by the wife when the judgment is rendered. When judgment is rendered dissolving the marriage, the wife is not entitled to dower in any of the husband's real property, or to a distributive share in his personal property.

After a marriage is dissolved, the plaintiff may marry again during the lifetime of the defendant; but a defendant, adjudged to be guilty of adultery, shall not marry again until the death of the plaintiff; but this does not prevent the remarriage of the parties to the action. By the amended Revised Statutes, the court in which the judgment of divorce

was rendered may modify its judgment so that the defendant can marry again before the death of the plaintiff, but only upon satisfactory proof that the plaintiff has remarried, that

five years have elapsed since the decree of divorce was rendered, and that the conduct of the defendant since the dissolution of the marriage has been uniformly good.

SEPARATION.

An action may be maintained by a husband or wife against the other, to procure a judgment separating them from bed and board for ever, or for a limited time, for either of the following causes, viz. :—

1. The cruel and inhuman treatment of the plaintiff by the defendant.

2. Such conduct, on the part of the defendant, towards the plaintiff as may render it unsafe and improper for the former to cohabit with the latter.

of the state when the action is commenced.

2. Where the parties were married within the state, and the plaintiff is a resident thereof when the action is commenced.

3. Where the parties have been married without the state, have become residents of the state, and have continued to be residents thereof at least one year; and the plaintiff is such a resident when the action is commenced.

The defendant may set up, in justi

3. The abandonment of the plain-fication, the misconduct of the plaintiff by the defendant.

4. Where the wife is plaintiff, the neglect or refusal of the defendant to provide for her.

In either of the following cases :1. Where both parties are residents

tiff. If a married woman dwells within the state when she commences an action against her husband for divorce or for separation, she is deemed a resident thereof, although her husband resides elsewhere.

MARRIED WOMEN'S RIGHTS.

Laws of 1860, chap. 90, the pro- | husband, or liable for his debts, experty, both real and personal, which any married woman owns as her sole and separate property; which comes to her by descent, devise, bequest, gift, or grant; which she acquires by her trade, business, labour, or services carried on or performed on her sole or separate account; which a woman married in this state owns at the time of her marriage, and the rents, issues, and proceeds of all such property, notwithstanding her marriage, is and remains her sole and separate property, and may be used, collected, and invested by her in her own name, and is not subject to the interference or control of her

cept such debts as may have been contracted for the support of herself or her children by her as his agent. A married woman may bargain, sell, assign, and transfer her separate personal property, carry on any trade or business, and perform any labour or services on her sole and separate account, and the earnings of any married woman from her trade, business, labour, or services are her sole and separate property, and may be used or invested by her in her own name. She may bargain, sell, and convey real estate possessed by her as her separate property, and enter into any contract in reference to it,

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