[The following forms have been adopted for use in enforcing the above law (chapter 181 of 1882): -] COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. To any of the Justices of the of the County of Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on oath complains: THAT in the County of of , in behalf of the minor, having no known child under fourteen settlement in said Commonwealth, living and residing in and within the Judicial District of said Justice, years of age, and that said child by reason of orphanage or of the neglect, crime, drunkenness or other vice of parents, growing up without education and salutary control, and in circumstances exposing to an idle and dissolute life, and dependent upon public charity, against the peace of said Commonwealth and the form of the Statute in such case made and provided. TO WIT: Taken and sworn to, this day of in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eightyBefore me, COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. TO WIT: To the Sheriff of our said County or either of his Deputies, or to any Constable or Police Officer of any City or Town in said County, GREETING: These are in the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to command you, and each of you, upon sight hereof, to take and bring before at the bod of of of said aforesaid, minor, if he be found within your precinct, to answer to the Commonwealth on complaint of this day made on oath before said Justice, that the said at said of said Justice, child within the jurisdiction less than fourteen years of age, and , by reason of orphanage or of neglect, crime, drunkenness or other vice of parents, growing up without education and salutary control, and in circumstances exposing to an idle and dissolute life, and dependent on public charity, against the peace of the Commonwealth and the form of the Statute in such case made and provided. Hereof fail not at your peril. WITNESS my hand and seal at this day of Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty in the year of our COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. TO WIT: To the Sheriff of our said County or either of his Deputies, or to any Constable or Police Officer of any City or Town in said County, GREETING: These are in the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to command you, and each of you, forthwith to convey and deliver into the custody of the state board of health, lunacy and charity, the bod of now before and of whom, after due trial, minor child under fourteen years it has been satisfactorily proven of age, and growing up by reason of orphanage, or of the neglect, crime, drunkenness or other vice of parents, without education and salutary control, and in circumstances exposing an idle and dissolute life, and dependent upon public charity in said to , contrary to the form of the Statute in such case made and provided. And it appearing to our Justice, in his discretion, that the said for committal to the custody of the State Board of Health, Lunacy and Charity, as provided and required by law. proper subject It is therefore ordered by me, the said Justice, that the said be committed to the custody of said Board until he arrive at the age of twenty-one years, or for the term of from the date hereof. to be provided And make return of this The care and maintenance of said child for by said Board as by law required. precept with your doings thereon. And you, the said Board, are hereby commanded to receive the said into your care and custody, and safely keep until the expiration of the term aforesaid, or be otherwise discharged in due course of law. Hereof fail not at your peril. WITNESS my hand and seal this day of in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eightyA true copy attest: [The following Statute, also passed in 1882, relates to matters contained in chapters 84 and 86 of the Public Statutes; but is printed here as being more appropriate to this place, and so as to precede chapter 85.] [Chapter 270.] AN ACT FOR THE BETTER PROTECTION OF CHILDREN. Be it enacted, etc., as follows: SECTION 1. Whoever, being the parent of a child less than two years old, abandons it within or without any building in this commonwealth, or having made a contract or provision for the board or maintenance of such child, absconds or fails to perform any such contract or provision, and for a period of four weeks after such absconding or failure neither visits nor removes such child, nor during said period notifies the overseers of the poor of the city or town where such parent resides of his or her inability to support such child, shall be punished by imprisonment, if a man, in the house of correction, and if a woman, in the reformatory prison for women, not exceeding two years, or, in case death shall result from such abandonment, not exceeding five years; but this act shall not apply to cases in which the omission to visit, remove or support such child, or to give such notice, arises from physical or mental disability. SECT. 2. Every person who knowingly and with wrongful intent aids or abets the abandonment of any such child, as set forth in the preceding section, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars or by imprisonment not exceeding two years in the house of correction. SECT. 3. Every person who receives for board a child under the age of one year, knowing or having reason to believe it to be illegitimate, shall forthwith notify the overseers of the poor of the city or town in which he resides of the fact of such reception, and, if requested by such overseers, shall also so notify the state board of health, lunacy and charity. The parent or parents of such child shall, when called upon by said board or such overseers, give to said board or such overseers satisfactory security for the maintenance of such child. The parents of such children shall, when called upon, give true answers to the said state board, or any of its officers, as to the residence, parentage and place of settlement of such children, so far as their knowledge extends. Whoever violates any of the provisions of this section shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars or by imprisonment in the house of correction not exceeding one year. SECT. 4. Whoever unreasonably neglects to provide for the support of his minor child shall be punished by fine not exceeding twenty dollars or by imprisonment in the house of correction not exceeding six months. [Approved May 26, 1882. 10. Written notice to be sent to complainant, etc. 11. Surety may surrender principal to keeper of jail, when. SECTION. 12. Accused discharged, how, when com. 13. For what reasons the cause may be con- 14. Defendant discharged, how, after com. 15. Trial by jury, and order of court there. on. 16. Mother of child may testify, etc. 17. Complaint not to be withdrawn without 18. Liability for support. 19. How case may be compromised. 20. Person charged as father may take poor 21. Mother of child, etc., may have remedy 22. Prosecutions to be conducted as in civil 23. Complainant not required to support to be made. 103 Complaint, how 3 Met. 209. 6 Cush. 111. 15 Gray, 50. 4 Allen, 365, 435. 5 Allen, 209, 301 10 Allen, 389. 9 Allen, 459. SECTION 1. When a woman who has been delivered of a bastard child, or is pregnant with a child which if born alive may be a bastard, makes a complaint to a police, district or municipal court, or trial justice, and desires to institute a prosecution against the person whom she accuses of being the father of the child, the court or trial justice shall take her accusation and examination, in writing under oath, respecting the person accused, the time when and place where the complainant was begotten with child, and such other circumstances as the court or trial justice deems necessary for the discovery of the truth of such accusation. The court 110 Mass. 152. or trial justice may issue a warrant against the person accused, returnable before the same or any other court or trial justice having jurisdiction thereof in the county. The warrant shall run throughout the state, and any officer to whom it is directed may serve it and apprehend the defendant in any county. SECT. 2. If a woman entitled to make a complaint refuses or neglects so to do when requested by an overseer of the poor of the place where she resides or has her settlement, or one of the state board of health, lunacy and charity, or the superintendent of the state almshouse, or a person authorized by either of them to make the request, or either of her parents, or her guardian, the person so requesting may make the complaint; and when already made, if she refuses or neglects to prosecute the same, either of said per 13 Allen, 472. 119 Mass. 167. Who may com woman refuses. 1879, 291, §3. plain, etc., if G. S. 72, § 2. 3 Allen, 477, 481. 10 Allen, 389, 394. Allen, 334. If woman is in G. S. 72, § 3. Person arrested may be released etc. sons may prosecute the case to final judgment, for the benefit of the parent, guardian, city, town or state. SECT. 3. When a woman is an inmate of the state almshouse, a complaint by her or in her behalf may be made either in the county where she then is, or where she last had her usual place of abode before becoming such inmate, and the warrant shall be returnable in the latter county or the county where the defendant resides. When a complaint is made in the county of Suffolk, by or in behalf of an inmate of the house of industry at Deer Island, the warrant shall be returnable before the municipal court of the city of Boston. SECT. 4. A person arrested upon such warrant may be released on giving bond, upon giving a bond, with sufficient sureties in not less than three hundred dollars, for his appearance before the court or trial justice having cognizance of the complaint, at a time to be specified in said bond. 1871, 42, § 1. Form of bond; how approved. 1871, 42, § 2. 1875, 109. Hearing on complaints may be continued, and bond taken 1863, 127, § 1. On failure to appear, etc., accused to be defaulted, and case sent to superior court. 1863, 127, § 2. Surety on bond given under section six may surrender SECT. 5. The bond shall be made to the party for whose benefit the complaint is made or prosecuted, and the sureties may be examined, and the bond approved, by a bail commissioner, master in chancery, or a justice of a police, district or municipal court. SECT. 6. The court or trial justice may continue from time to time the hearing of such complaint and may take a bond from the accused, in a sufficient sum, and with sufficient surety or sureties, to the complainant, for the appearance of the accused before the court or trial justice at any hearing of the complaint at any subsequent time to which it may be continued, and from time to time until the final disposition of the complaint before the court or trial justice, and not depart without leave. SECT. 7. If the accused does not appear before the court or trial justice at any time to which the hearing of the complaint is continued, or departs without leave, his default shall be recorded, and the bond, with a copy of the complaint and warrant, and also a copy of the record of the court or trial justice in the case, shall be transmitted to the superior court in the same county, where the complaint shall be entered and proceeded with in accordance with the provisions hereof regulating the mode of proceedings in like cases in the superior court; and if the accused is adjudged by the court, on a final hearing of the complaint, to be the father of the child of which he is accused, the bond shall be security for the performance by him of any order of the court under the provisions of section fifteen. SECT. 8. The surety in a bond given under the provisions of section six may surrender the principal to the court or trial justice before whom the complaint is pending, or, if the complaint is pend |