same.

TENEMENT AND LODGING-HOUSES.

The owner or keeper of any lodging-house, and the owner or lessee of any tenement-house or part thereof, shall thoroughly cleanse all the rooms, passages, stairs, floors, windows, doors, walls, ceilings, privies, cess-pools and drains thereof of the house or part of the house of which he is the owner or lessee, to the satisfaction of the board of health, so often as shall be required by or in accordance with any regulation or ordinance of said city, and shall well and sufficiently, to the satisfaction of said board, whitewash the walls and ceilings thereof twice at least in every year, in the months of April and October, unless the said board shall otherwise direct. Every tenement or lodging-house shall have legibly posted or painted on the wall or door in the entry, or some public accessible place, the name and address of the owner or owners, and of the agent or agents, or any one having charge of the renting and collecting of the rents for the same; and service of any papers required by this act, or by any proceedings to enforce any of its provisions, or of the acts relating to the board of health, shall be sufficient if made upon the person or persons so designated as owner or owners, agent or agents.

SECT. 10. The keeper of any lodging-house, and the owner, agent of the owner, lessee and occupant of any tenement-house, and every other person having the care or management thereof, shall, at all times, when required by any officer of the board of health, or by any officer upon whom any duty or authority is conferred by this act, give him free access to such house and to every part thereof. The owner or keeper of any lodging-house, and the owner, agent of the owner, and the lessee of any tenement-house or part thereof, shall, whenever any person in such house is sick of fever, or of any infectious, pestilential or contagious disease, and such sickness is known to such owner, keeper, agent or lessee, give immediate notice thereof to the board of health, or to some officer of the same, and, thereupon, said board shall cause the same to be inspected, and may, if found necessary, cause the same to be immediately cleansed or disinfected at the expense of the owner, in such manner as they may deem necessary and effectual; and they may also cause the blankets, bedding and bed-clothes used by any such sick person, to be thoroughly cleansed, scoured and fumigated, and in extreme cases to be destroyed.

SECT. 11. Whenever it shall be certified to the board of health by the superintendent, that any building or part thereof is unfit for human habitation, by reason of its being so infected with disease as

PART I.]

SECRETARY'S REPORT.

[CHAP. I.

to be likely to cause sickness among its occupants, or by reason of its want of repair has become dangerous to life, said board may issue an order, and cause the same to be affixed conspicuously on the building or part thereof, and to be personally served upon the owner, agent or lessee, if the same can be found in this state, requiring all persons therein to vacate such building, for the reasons to be stated therein as aforesaid. Such building or part thereof shall, within ten days thereafter, be vacated; or within such shorter time, not less than twenty-four hours, as in said notice may be specified; but said board, if it shall become satisfied that the danger from said house or part thereof has ceased to exist, may revoke said order, and it shall thenceforward become inoperative.

SECT. 12. No house hereafter erected shall be used as a tenement-house or lodging-house, and no house heretofore erected, and not now used for such purpose, shall be converted into, used or leased for a tenement or lodging-house, unless, in addition to the requirements herein before contained, it conforms to the requirements contained in the following sections.

SECT. 13. It shall not be lawful hereafter to erect for or convert to the purpose of a tenement or lodging-house a building on the front of any lot where there is another building on the rear of the same lot, unless there is a clear, open space, exclusively belonging to the front building and extending upwards from the ground, of at least ten feet between said buildings, if they are one story high above the level of the ground; if they are two stories high, the distance between them shall not be less than fifteen feet; if they are three stories high, the distance between them shall be twenty feet; and if they are more than three stories high, the distance between them shall be twenty-five feet. At the rear of every building hereafter erected for or converted to the purposes of a tenement or lodging-house on the back part of any lot, there shall be a clear, open space of ten feet between it and any other building. But when thorough ventilation of such open spaces can be otherwise secured, said distances may be lessened or modified, in special cases, by a permit from the board of health or the superintendent. SECT. 14. In every such house hereafter erected or converted, every habitable room, except rooms in the attic, shall be in every part not less than eight feet in height from the floor to the ceiling; and every habitable room in the attic of any such building shall be at least eight feet in height from the floor to the ceiling, throughout not less than one-half the area of such room. Every such room shall have at least one window connecting with the external air, or

TENEMENT AND LODGING-HOUSES.

over the door a suitable ventilator, connecting it with a room or hall which has a connection with the external air. The total area of window in every room communicating with the external air, shall be equal to at least one-tenth of the superficial area of every such room; and the top of one, at least, of such windows shall not be less than seven feet and six inches above the floor, and the upper half of each window shall be so made as to open for the purposes of ventilation. Every habitable room of a less area than one hundred superficial feet, if it does not communicate directly with the external air, and is without an open fire-place, shall be provided with special means of ventilation by a separate air shaft extending to the roof, or otherwise, as the board of health may prescribe.

SECT. 15. Every such house hereafter erected or converted, shall have adequate chimneys running through every floor, with an open fire-place or grate, or place for a stove, properly connected with one of said chimneys, for every family and set of apartments. It shall have proper conveniences and receptacles for ashes and rubbish; it shall have water furnished at one or more places in such house, or in the yard thereof, so that the same may be adequate and reasonably convenient for the use of the occupants thereof. It shall have the floor of the cellar properly cemented, so as to be water-tight. The halls on each floor shall open directly to the external air, with suitable windows, and shall have no room or other obstruction at the end, unless sufficient light or ventilation is otherwise provided for said halls, in a manner approved by the board of health or the superintendent.

SECT. 16. Every owner or other person violating any provision of this act, after the same shall take effect, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding sixty days.

SECT. 17. A tenement-house within the meaning of this act, shall be taken to mean and include every house, building, or portion thereof which is rented, leased, let or hired out to be occupied, or is occupied as the house or residence of more than three families living independently of another, and doing their cooking upon the premises, or by more than two families upon a floor, so living and cooking, but having a common right in the halls, stairways, yards, water-closets or privies, or some of them.

A lodging-house shall be taken to mean and include any house or building, or portion thereof, in which persons are lodged for hire for a single night, or for less than a week at one time.

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SECRETARY'S REPORT.

[CHAP. I.

A cellar shall be taken to mean and include every basement or lower story of any building or house, of which one-half or more of the height from the floor to the ceiling is below the level of the street adjoining.

SECT. 18. The board of health shall have authority to make other regulations as to cellars and as to ventilation, consistent with the foregoing, where it shall be satisfied that such regulations will secure equally well the health of the occupants. All complaints under this act shall be made only by authority of the board of health, and the municipal court of the city of Boston shall have jurisdiction concurrent with the superior court of all offences against the provisions of this act. [Approved June 4, 1868.

It is not to be supposed, that, even when fully carried out, this law will remedy all the mischiefs which prevail in city tenement houses; but it is full, comprehensive and well guarded, and has thus far been found to work well in New York. And it will be of great service, long before its provisions are literally complied with, in directing attention to the means of preventing disease, and overcrowding, and the innumerable evils from which the poor suffer in all our cities and large towns. Moreover, in case of necessity, it gives the means of vacating houses of the description mentioned. If, along with such legislation as this, there might be such a public interest taken in the subject as would lead to the building by private capital or the funds of benevolent societies or individuals, of tenement and lodging-houses of the right sort in approved localities, especially in the suburbs of cities, or still further in the country; and if the means of cheap and speedy travel from such dwellings to the place of labor in the city could also be provided, a great step would have been taken for the improvement of the physical and moral condition of the poor. But neither legislation nor self-interest, alone or combined, will secure the desired result, without the intervention of active philanthropy,-of that spirit which the Founder of Christianity taught and displayed, and which his followers cannot too warmly accept and imitate.

4.-The Office of Overseers of the Poor.

The tendency of our legislation for several years, in accordance with the recommendations of your Board, has been to

OVERSEERS OF THE POOR IN TOWNS.

enlarge the term of service and elevate the office of Overseers of the Poor in our cities and towns. This ancient office, dating back historically to the days of Queen Elizabeth, three centuries ago, and always an honorable one in New England, cannot be too highly regarded or too well filled. Length of service in it is almost essential to the proper performance of its noble but exacting duties; and those towns are to be congratulated which have, for five, ten, twenty or even fifty years, retained the same careful men in this position. A fixed rule, however, is better than a shifting practice, which may allow the best Overseers to go out of office just when their labors are most valuable. For this reason, the extended term of office established by law in Boston, Worcester, Newburyport and other cities, is a great benefit to those cities. This modification of the old practice of annual elections was this year introduced in the city of Lynn, and it would have been well if the amended charter of New Bedford had contained a clause similar to that by which Lynn now conducts the election of Overseers. In due course of time, a general law fixing three years as the period of service in all the towns and cities, and requiring a majority of the Board to hold over from year to year will undoubtedly be passed.

On the other hand, certain restrictions on the large authority of the Overseers in the matter of minor children were imposed by the last legislature, and will probably remain on the Statute Book, since they do not stand in the way of a proper and cautious disposal of such cases as led to petitions for the new law. The celebrated Hopkinton case, which was heard in the Supreme Court, and passed upon by Judge Gray, was the occasion of the Act cited below:

[CHAP. 279.]

AN ACT to prohibit the removal of Minors from the State, by Overseers of the Poor.

Be it enacted, &c., as follows:

SECT. 1. It shall be unlawful for the overseers of the poor, of any city or town, to remove beyond the limits of this Commonwealth, any minor under their control, or cause or allow the same to be done, or to withhold information concerning the maintenance