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CHAPTER CLXXXV.

OF OFFENCES AGAINST CHASTITY, MORALITY AND DECENCY.

SECTION

5856. Adultery, punishment of.

5857. "Adultery" defined.

5858. By whom and when prosecution to be

commenced.

5859. Polygamy.

5860. Excepted cases.

5861. Lewd and lascivious cohabitation, etc.
5862. Seduction, how punished.

5863. Concealment by mother of death of bas-
tard child.

5864. How charged in such case in indictment.
5865. Keeping house of ill-fame.

5S66. Lease of house so kept, void, at option of
lessor.

5867. Penalty upon person letting dwelling
house, knowing that it is to be used for
the purpose of prostitution.
5868. Obscene books or prints.

5869. Search Warrant may issue for same; Des-
truction of.

5870. Incest.

5871. Crime against nature.

SECTION

5872. Blasphemy.

5873. Cursing and swearing.

5874. Disturbing Religious worship.

5875. Exciting disturbance.

5876. Violation of sepulture.

5877. Injuring tombs and memorials of the dead. 5878. Making highway, etc., through burying ground.

5879. Cruelty to animals.

5880. Meetings for Religious Worship not to be
disturbed; Liquors not to be sold; Shows,
etc, not to be exhibited; Highways not
to be obstructed.

5881. Penalty; Proceedings to collect.
5882. Offenders to be apprehended by Peace
Officers present.

5883. May be ordered into custody of official
members of Church, etc.

5884. Proceedings if penalty not paid or secured. 5885. Person complained of may demand Jury, etc.

Mass. R. S., Ch. 130.

Adultery, punishment of.

Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Eight of the Revised Statutes of 1846.

(5856.) SECTION 1. Every person who shall commit adultery, 2 Cushing, 551. shall be punished by imprisonment in the State prison not more than three years, or by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or imprisonment in the county jail not more than one year; and when the crime is committed between a married woman and a man who is unmarried, the man shall be deemed guilty of adultery, and liable to the same punishment.

"Adultery" defined.

(5857.) SEC. 2. The term "adultery," as used in this chapter, has the same meaning as when used in reference to the causes of a divorce, and the same which it bears according to the common usage of the language.

when prosecution

(5858.) SEC. 3. No prosecution for adultery shall be com- By whom and menced but on the complaint of the husband or wife; and no to be commenc such prosecution shall be commenced after one year from the time of committing the offence.

ed.

1 Pick., 136.

2 Cushing, 553

(5859.) SEC. 4. If any person who has a former husband or Polygamy. wife living, shall marry another person, or shall continue to s do. 433. cohabit with such second husband or wife, in this State, he or she shall, except in the cases mentioned in the following section, be deemed guilty of the crime of polygamy, and shall be punished by imprisonment in the State prison not more than five years, or in the county jail not more than one year, or by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars.

(5860.) SEC. 5. The provisions of the preceding section shall Excepted cases not extend to any person whose husband or wife shall have been continually remaining beyond sea, or shall have voluntarily withdrawn from the other and remained absent for the space of five years together, the party marrying again not knowing the other to be living within that time, nor to any person who shall have good reason to believe such husband or wife to be dead, nor to any person who has been legally divorced from the bonds of matrimony, and was not the guilty cause of such divorce.

ous cohabitation

1 Mass., 8.

(5861.) SEc. 6. If any man and woman, not being married Lewd and lascivi to each other, shall lewdly and lasciviously associate and etc. cohabit together, or if any man or woman, married or unmar-i0 do. 153. ried, shall be guilty of open and gross lewdness and lascivious behavior, or shall designedly make any open and indecent or obscene exposure of his or her person, or of the person of another, every such person shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not more than one year, or by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars.

punished.

1 Wis. Rep., 209.

(5862.) SEC. 7. If any man shall seduce and debauch any seduction; how unmarried woman, he shall be punished by imprisonment in 1814, p. 6, etc. the State prison not more than five years, or by imprisonment in the county jail not more than one year, or by fine not exceeding one thousand dollars; but no prosecution shall bet commenced under this or the last preceding section, after one year from the time of committing the offence.

mother of death

(5863.) Sec. 8. If any woman shall conceal the death of any concealment by issue of her body, which, if born alive, would be a bastard, so cf bastard child that it may not be known whether such issue was born alive or not, or whether it was not murdered, she shall be punished

How charged in such case in indictment.

Keeping house of

ill fame.

2 Gray, 356.

Lease of house so kept, void at

3 Pick., 26.

by fine not exceeding one hundred dollars, or imprisonment in the county jail not more than one year.

(5864.) SEC. 9. Any woman who shall be indicted for the murder of her infant bastard child, may also be charged in the same indictment with the offence described in the preceding section; and if on the trial, the jury shall acquit her of the crime of murder, and find her guilty of the other offence, judgment and sentence may be awarded against her for the

same.

(5865.) SEC. 10. Every person who shall keep a house of ill fame, resorted to for the purpose of prostitution or lewdness, shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not more than one year, or by fine not exceeding three hundred dollars.

(5866.) SEC. 11. Whenever the lessee of any dwelling house option of Lessor. shall be convicted, or shall be guilty of the offence mentioned in the preceding section, the lease or contract for letting such house, shall, at the option of the lessor, become void, and such lessor shall thereupon have the like remedy to recover the possession, as against a tenant holding over after the expiration of his term.

Penalty upon per

son letting dwell

ing that it is to be

(5867.) SEC. 12. If any person shall let any dwelling house, ing house, know- knowing that the lessee intends to use it as a place of resort used for the pur- for the purpose of prostitution and lewdness, or shall knowingly permit such lessee to use the same for such purpose, he shall be punished by fine not exceeding three hundred dollars, or imprisonment in the county jail not more than six months.

pose of prostitution.

Obscene books or prints.

17 Mass., 336.

1 Mich. Rep., 90.

(5868.) SEC. 13. If any person shall import, print, publish, sell or distribute any book, pamphlet, ballad, printed paper, or other thing, containing obscene language, or obscene prints, pictures, figures or descriptions, manifestly tending to the corruption of the morals of youth, or shall introduce into any family, school or place of education, or shall buy, procure, receive or have in his possession, any such book, pamphlet, ballad, printed paper or other thing, either for the purpose of sale, exhibition, loan or circulation, or with intent to introduce the same into any family, school or place of education, shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not more than one year, or by fine not exceeding one thousand dollars. Search Warrant (5869.) SEC. 14. Any Justice of the Peace may issue a search same; destruc Warrant, for the purpose of searching for any such obscene books, pamphlets, ballads, printed papers or other things

may issue for

tion of.

mentioned in the preceding section, in the manner provided by law in cases of property stolen or embezzled; and all such things, which shall be found by any officer, in executing a search warrant, or which shall be produced or brought into Court, shall be safely kept so long as shall be necessary for the purpose of being used as evidence in any case, and as soon as may be afterwards, shall be destroyed by order of the Court. before whom the same shall be brought.

(5870.) SEC. 15. All persons being within the degree of Incest. consanguinity within which marriages are prohibited, or declared by law to be incestuous and void, who shall intermarry with each other, or who shall commit adultery or fornication with each other, shall be punished by imprisonment in the State prison not more than, fifteen years, or in the county jail not more than one year.

(5871.) SEC. 16. Every person who shall commit the abomi- Crime against na nable and detestable crime against nature, either with mankind ture.

or with any beast, shall be punished by imprisonment in the State prison not more than fifteen years.

20 Pick., 208.

316.

(5872.) SEC. 17. If any person shall willfully blaspheme the Blasphemy. holy name of God, by cursing, or contumeliously reproaching Thacher's C. C., God, he shall be punished by imprisonment in the county. jail not more than six months, or by fine not exceeding fifty dollars.

swearing.

(5873.) SEC. 18. If any person who has arrived at the age Cursing and of discretion, shall profanely curse or damn, or swear by the name of God, Jesus Christ, or the Holy Ghost, he shall, on conviction thereof before any Justice of the Peace, be punished by a fine not exceeding five dollars, nor less than one dollar; but no such prosecution shall be sustained unless it shall be commenced within five days after the commission of such offence.

gious worship.

(5874.) SEC. 19. Every person who, on the first day of the Disturbing relie week, or at any other time, shall willfully interrupt or disturb 2 Mass., 103. any assembly of people met for the worship of God, within the place of such meeting or out of it, shall, on conviction thereof before any Justice of the Peace, be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not more than thirty days, or by fine not exceeding fifty dollars.

bance.

(5875.) SEC. 20. If any person shall make or excite any Exciting distur disturbance or contention in any tavern, store or grocery, or at any election or other public meeting where the citizens are peaceably and lawfully assembled, he shall, on conviction

Violation of se-
pulture.
10 Pick., 37.

Injuring tombs and memorials of the dead.

Making highway, etc., through bufying ground.

Cruelty to animals

Meetings for reli

before any Justice of the Peace, be punished by fine not exceeding twenty dollars, and imprisonment in the county jail not more than ten days.

(5876.) SEC. 21. If any person, not being lawfully authorized so to do, shall willfully dig up, disinter, remove or convey away any human body, or the remains thereof, from the place where such body may be interred or deposited, or shall knowingly aid in such disinterment, removal or conveying away, every such offender, and every person accessory thereto, either before or after the fact, shall be punished by imprisonment in the State prison, not more than two years, or in the county jail not more than one year, or by fine not exceeding two thousand dollars.

(5877.) SEC. 22. If any person shall willfully destroy, mutilate, deface, injure or remove any tomb, monument, gravestone or other structure or thing placed or designed for a memorial of the dead, or any fence, railing, curb or other thing intended for the protection or for the ornament of any tomb, monument, gravestone or other structure before mentioned, or of any enclosure for the burial of the dead, or shall willfully destroy, mutilate, remove, cut, break or injure any tree, shrub or plant, placed or being within any such enclosure, the person so offending shall be punished by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, nor less than ten dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail not more than one year.

(5878.) SEc. 23. If any person shall open or make any highway, or shall construct any railroad, turnpike or canal, or any other thing in the nature of a public easement, over, through, in or upon, such part of any enclosure, being the property of a township, city, religious society, or of any other body corporate, or of private proprietors, as may be used or appropriated for the burial of the dead, unless an authority for that purpose shall be specially granted by law, or unless the consent of such township, city, religious society, body corporate or proprictors respectively, shall be first obtained, he shall be punished by fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, or imprisonment in the county jail not more than one year.

(5879.) SEC. 24. Every person who shall cruelly beat or torture any horse, ox or other animal, whether belonging to himself or another, shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not more than six months, or by fine not exceeding fifty dollars.

(5880.) SEC. 25. No person shall willfully disturb, interrupt to be disturbed. or disquiet any assembly of people met for religious worship,

gious worship not

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