Chapter 58. for the protection of children in the District of Columbia and for other purposes
877 words·~4 min read·
/statutes-at-large/vol-23/chapter-58-1259716·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
CHAP. 58.— An Act for the protection of children in the District of Columbia and for other purposes.Feb. 13, 1885. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*,Association for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for District of Columbia name to changed to Washington Humane Society.Operations extended to protection of children. Its officers and agents may prefer complaints and aid in bringing facts before court.Commissioners of the District of Columbia to aid in enforcing laws relating to the protection of children, and detail officers or appoint agents to aid in work.
That from and after the passage of this act the Association for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for the District of Columbia shall be known as the “Washington Humane Society”, and shall be authorized to extend its operations under this act to the protection of children as well as animals from cruelty and abuse. In pursuance thereof the said society may cause its proper officers or agents to prefer complaints, before any court in the District of Columbia having jurisdiction, for the violation of any law relating to or affecting the protection of children in said District, and by its proper attorney may aid in bringing the facts before such court in any proceeding taken.
Sec. 2. That the Commissioners of the District of Columbia shall, by the police force of said District, aid the said society, its officers and agents, in the enforcement of all laws relating to or affecting the protection of children; and the Commissioners of the said District, and their successors, are authorized, in their discretion, to detail, from time to time, an officer or officers to aid specially in the work of said society, or they may commission any duly appointed agents of said society 303 FORTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS.
Sess. II. Ch. 58, 59. 1885. special police officers, without compensation; and such agents or officers shall have power to arrest, without warrant, all persons violating in their presence or sight any law relating to or affecting the protection of children, or other parties so offending by virtue of a warrant issued by the police court of the District of Columbia, which offenders shall be taken by such agents or officers before the said police court of the District of Columbia for trial.
Said agents or officers are also hereby empoweredPowers of officers. to bring before the said court any child who is subjected to cruel treatment, willful abuse, or neglect, or any child under sixteen years of age found in a house of ill-fame; and said court may commitCourt to commit. such child to an orphan asylum or other public charitable institution in the District of Columbia, with the consent of the constituted authorities of such asylum or institution, or make such other disposition thereof as now is or may hereafter be provided by law in cases of vagrant, destitute, or abandoned children: *Provided*, That any parent,*Proviso*.Parent or guardian may appeal. guardian, or near relative who may feel aggrieved by any order of said court in the premises may appeal therefrom to the criminal court of the District of Columbia.
Sec. 3. That any person in the District of Columbia who shall torture,Abuse, abandonment, or wrongful employment of a child declared a misdemeanor; punishable by fine and imprisonment. cruelly beat, abuse, or otherwise willfully maltreat any child under the age of eighteen years; or any person, having the custody and possession of a child under the age of fourteen years, who shall expose, or aid and abet in exposing, such child in any highway, street, field, house, outhouse, or other place, with intent to abandon it; or any person, having in his custody or control a child under the age of fourteen years, who shall in any way dispose of it with a view to its being employed as an acrobat, or a gymnast, or a contortionist, or a circus-rider, or a rope-walker, or in any exhibition of like dangerous character, or as a beggar, or mendicant, or pauper, or street-singer, or street-musician; or any person who shall take, receive, hire, employ, use, exhibit, or have in custody any child of the age last named for any of the purposes last enumerated, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and when convicted thereof shall be subject to punishment by a fine of not more than two hundred and fifty dollars, or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or both.
Sec. 4. That any person who shall entice, decoy, place, take, or receiveEnticing female child to become prostitute, or using for obscene purposes, punishable by fine and imprisonment. any female child under the age of eighteen years into any house of ill-fame or disorderly house, for the purpose of prostitution, or any person who, having in his custody or control such child, shall dispose of it to be so received, or to be received in or for any obscene, indecent, or immoral purpose, exhibition, or practice, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and when convicted thereof shall be subject to punishment by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years, or both.
Approved, February 13th, 1884.