any of his infirmities or failings, with intent to extort money, goods, chattels or other valuable things, or threatening to maim, wound, kill or murder, or to burn. or destroy his or her house or other property, or to accuse another of a crime or misdemeanor, or expose or publish any of his or her infirmities or failings, though no money, goods, chattels or valuable thing be demanded, such person so offending, shall, on conviction, be fined in a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars and imprisoned, not exceeding six months. DIVISION X. OFFENCES AGAINST THE PUBLIC PEACE AND TRANQUILLITY. SECTION 112. If any person, at late and unusual hours of the night time maliciously or wilfully disturb the peace or quiet of any neighborhood or family, by loud or unusual noises or by tumultuous and offensive carriage, threatening, traducing, quarreling, challenging to fight or fighting, every person convicted thereof, shall be fined in a sum not exceeding fifty dollars or imprisoned, not exceeding two months. SEC. 113. If two or more persons assemble for the purpose of disturbing the public peace or committing any unlawful act, and do not disperse on being desired or commanded so to do, by a judge, justice of the peace, sheriff, coroner, constable or other public officer, persons so offending, shall, on conviction, be severally fined, in any sum not exceeding fifty dollars, and imprisoned, not exceeding one month. SEC. 114. If two or more persons shall, by agreement, fight in a public place, to the terror of the citizens of this State, the persons so offending shall be deemed guilty of an affray. SEC. 115. If two or more persons shall assemble together to do an unlawful act, and separate without doing or advancing towards it, such persons shall be deemed guilty of an unlawful assemblage, and upon conviction thereof, be severally fined, in a sum, not exceeding fifty dollars, or imprisoned, not exceeding three months. SEC. 116. If two or more persons shall meet to do an unlawful act, upon a common cause of quarrel, and make advances towards it, they shall be deemed guilty of a rout, and on conviction, shall be severally fined, in a sum not exceeding seventy dollars, or imprisoned, not exceeding four months. SEC. 117. If two or more persons actually do an unlawful act with force or violence against the person or property of another, with or without a common cause of quarrel, or even do a lawful act in a violent and tumultuous manner, the persons so offending, shall be deemed guilty of a riot, and on conviction, shall severally be fined, not exceeding two hundred dollars, or imprisoned, not exceeding six months. SEC. 118. If any judge, justice of the peace, sheriff or other officer bound to preserve the public peace, shall have knowledge of an intention on the part of any two persons to fight with any deadly weapon or weapons, and such officer shall not use and exert his official authority to arrest the parties and prevent the duel, every such officer shall be fined, not exceeding one hundred dollars. SEC. 119. If any person or persons shall, in any newspaper or handbill, written or printed, publish or proclaim any other person or persons as a coward or cowards, or use any other opprobrious or abusive language, for not accepting a challenge to fight a duel, or for not fighting a duel, such person or persons so offending, on conviction, shall be fined, in a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars, or imprisoned, for a term not exceeding three months. The publisher or printer of any such newspaper, handbill or other publication, may be summoned as a witness, and shall be required to testify against the writer or writers of such handbill or publication; and if any such printer or printers shall refuse to testify in relation to the premises, either before the grand or petit jury, he or they shall be deemed guilty of a flagrant contempt of the court, and may be punished by fine and imprisonment, or either: Provided, however, That the testimony given by any such witness shall, in no case, be used in any prosecution against such witness. SEC. 120. A libel is a malicious defamation, expressed either by printing or by signs or pictures, or the like, tending to blacken the memory of one who is dead or to impeach the honesty, integrity, virtue or reputation, or publish the natural defects of one who is alive, and thereby to expose him or her to public hatred, contempt or ridicule: Every person, whether writer or publisher, convicted of this offence, shall be fined, in a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars, or imprisoned, not exceeding one year. In all prosecutions for a libel, the truth thereof may be given in evidence in justification, except libels tending to blacken the memory of the dead, or expose the natural defects of the living. DIVISION XI. OFFENCES AGAINST THE PUBLIC MORALITY, HEALTH AND POLICE. SECTION 121. Bigamy, what constitutes, and punishment therefor. 122. Bigamy, further defined, and penalty. 123. Adultery and fornication, and punishment therefor. 124. What marriages declared incestuous. 125. Incestuous intercourse, and punishment therefor. 126. Cohabitation of father and daughter, how punished. 127. Open lewdness, indecency and debauchery, how punished. 128. Playing cards, dice, &c., importation or use of, how punished. 129. Gaming houses, keepers of, how punished. 130. Gaming, how punished. 131. Tavern keepers, penalty for permitting gaming in their houses; justices of the peace, their duty under this chapter, and penalty for omission thereof. SECTION 132. Spirituous liquors, selling without license, how punished. 133. Colored servants, slaves or Indians, selling li 134. Public roads and highways, navigable and other 137. Public notices, defacing, injuring or destroying 138. Vagrants, how disposed of. SECTION 145. Preceding section, how to be construed. 146. Private family, disturbance of on Sabbath, penalty therefor. 147. Public worship, disturbance of, how punished. SECTION 148. Jurisdiction of justices of the peace, and officers above named. 149. Offences specified in the preceding five sections, how tried, &c. 150. Appeals. SECTION 121. Bigamy consists in the having of two wives or two husbands at one and the same time, knowing that the former husband or wife is still alive. If any person or persons within this State, being married, or who shall hereafter marry, do at any time marry any person or persons, the former husband or wife being alive, the person so offending shall, on conviction thereof, be punished by a fine, not exceeding one thousand dollars, and imprisoned in the penitentiary, not exceeding two years. It shall not be necessary to prove either of the said marriages by the register or certificate thereof, or other record evidence; but the same may be proved by such evidence as is admissible to prove a marriage in other cases; and when such second marriage shall have taken place without this State, cohabitation in this State, after such second marriage, shall be deemed the commission of the crime of bigamy, and the trial in such case may take place in the county where such cohabitation shall have occurred. Nothing herein contained shall extend to any person or persons whose husband or wife shall have been continually absent from such person or persons for the space of five years together prior to the said second marriage, and he or she not knowing such husband or wife to be living within that time. Also, nothing herein contained shall extend to any person that is or shall be at the time of such second marriage, divorced by lawful authority from the bands of such former marriage, or to any person where the former marriage hath been by lawful authority declared void. SEC. 122. If any man or woman, being unmarried, shall knowingly marry the husband or wife of another, such man or woman shall, on conviction, be fined, not more than five hundred dollars, or imprisoned, not more than one year. SEC. 123. Any man and woman who shall live together in an open state of adultery or fornication, or adultery and fornication, every such man and woman shall be indicted, and on conviction, shall be fined, in any sum not exceeding two hundred dollars each, or imprisoned, not exceeding six months. This offence shall be sufficiently proved by circumstances which raise the presumption of cohabitation and unlawful intimacy; and for a second offence, such man or woman shall be severally punished twice as much as the former punishment, and for the third offence, treble, and thus increasing the punishment for each succeeding offence: Provided, however, That it shall be in the power of the party or parties offending, to prevent or suspend the prosecution by their intermarriage, if such marriage can be legally solemnized, and upon the payment of the costs of such prosecution. SEC. 124. Marriages between parents and children, including grand-parents and grand-children of every degree, between brothers and sisters of the half as well as of the whole blood, and between uncles and nieces, aunts and nephews, are declared to be incestuous and absolutely void. This section shall extend to illegitimate as well as legitimate children and relations. SEC. 125. Persons within the degrees of consanguinity within which marriages are declared by the preceding section to be incestuous and void, who shall intermarry with each other, or who shall commit adultery or fornication with each other, or who shall lewdly and lasciviously cohabit with each other, shall be liable to indictment, and upon conviction, be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary, not exceeding ten years. SEC. 126. If a father shall rudely and licentiously cohabit with his own daughter, the father shall, on conviction, be punished by confinement in the penitentiary, for a term not exceeding twenty years. SEC. 127. If any person shall be guilty of open lewdness, or other notorious act of public indecency, tending to debauch the public morals, or shall keep open any tippling house on the Sabbath day or night, or shall maintain or keep a lewd house or place for the practice of fornication, or shall keep a common ill-governed and disorderly house, to the encouragement of idleness, gaming, drinking, fornication or other misbehavior, every such person shall, on conviction, be fined, not exceeding one hundred dollars, or imprisoned, not exceeding six months. SEC. 128. If any person shall hereafter bring or cause to be brought or imported into this State for sale, or shall sell or offer to sell any pack or packs of playing cards, or any dice, billiard table, billiard balls, or any other device or thing invented or made for the purpose of being used at any game, or any obscene book, pamphlet or print, every such person shall, on conviction, be fined, in a sum not less than twenty-five dollars, nor more than fifty dollars. SEC. 129. If any person shall, by himself, herself, servant or other agent, for his or her gain or profit, keep, have, exercise or maintain a common gaming house, table or room, or in any house or place occupied by him or her, procure or permit any persons to frequent or come together to play for money, or other valuable thing, at any game, every offender, on conviction, shall be fined, not exceeding one hundred dollars, or imprisoned, not exceeding six months. SEC. 130. If any person or persons shall play for money or other valuable thing, at any game with cards, dice, checks or at billiards, or with any other article or instrument, thing or things whatsoever, which may be used for the purpose of playing or betting upon, or winning or losing money, or any other thing or things, article or articles of value, or shall bet on any game others may be playing, every person so offending shall be fined, not exceeding one hundred dollars, and not less than ten dollars. SEC. 131. Every tavern keeper who shall suffer or permit any game or games, prohibited or intended to be prohibited by this chapter, to be played in his tavern, or in any out house appendant thereto, shall, on conviction, be fined, not exceeding one hundred dollars, and shall forfeit his license, and shall not be again licensed as a tavern keeper for one year from such conviction. It shall be the duty of all justices of the peace, sheriffs, coroners and grand jurors now in office, or hereafter to be appointed, to take notice and give information to the proper authorities, of all such offences as may be committed in their respective counties, contrary to the provisions of this chapter, whenever the same may in any wise come under their immediate observation. And if any officer, whose duty it is made to execute the provisions of this chapter, shall neglect to enforce its provisions upon view or complaint, such officer, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined in the sum of one hundred dollars, and shall moreover be suspended from office for one year. SEC. 132. Every person who shall not have a legal license to keep a grocery, who shall barter, exchange or sell any wine, rum, brandy, gin, whiskey or other vinous, spirituous or mixed liquors, to any person or persons, by a less quantity than one quart, shall, on conviction, be fined for every offence ten dollars. SEC. 133. Every tavern keeper or other retailer of spirituous liquors, who shall barter, sell or exchange any wine, rum, gin, brandy, whiskey or other spirituous liquors, to any black or mulatto servant or slave, without the consent of the master or mistress of such servant or slave; and every person, whether tavern keeper or not, who shall sell, barter or exchange any wine, rum, gin, brandy, whiskey or other spirituous or mixed liquors, to any Indian or Indians in this State, shall, on conviction, be fined in the sum of ten dollars for each offence. SEC. 134. If any person shall obstruct or injure, or cause or procure to be obstructed or injured, any public road or highway, or common street or alley, of any town or village, or any public bridge or causeway, or public river or stream declared navigable by law, or shall continue such obstruction, so as to render the same inconvenient or dangerous to pass, or shall erect or establish any offensive trade or manufacture or business, or continue the same after it has been erected or established, or shall in anywise pollute or obstruct any water course, lake, pond, marsh or common sewer, or continue such obstruction or pollution, so as to render the same offensive or unwholesome to the county, town, village or neighborhood thereabouts; every person so offending, shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined not exceeding one hundred dollars. And every such nuisance may, by order of the circuit court before whom the conviction may take place, be removed and abated by the sheriff of the proper county; and any inquest and judgment thereon, had under the provisions of any law authorizing a writ of ad quod damnum, shall be no bar to a prosecution under this chapter. SEC. 135. If any person or persons shall, knowingly sell any flesh of any diseased animal, or other unwholesome provisions, or any pernicious or adulterated drink or liquors, every person so offending, shall be fined, not exceeding one hundred dollars, or imprisoned, not exceeding three months. SEC. 136. If any person, number of persons or corporation, in this State, without special leave from the General Assembly, shall emit or utter any bill of credit, make, sign, draw or indorse any bond, promissory note or writing, bill of exchange or order, to be used as a general circulating medium, as, and in lieu of money or other currency, every such person or persons, or members of such corporation, assenting to such proceedings, being thereof duly convicted, shall pay a fine, not exceeding three hundred dollars, or be imprisoned, not exceeding one year. SEC. 137. If any person shall intentionally deface, obliterate, tear down or destroy, in whole or in part, any copy or transcript, or extract from, or of any law of the United States or of this State, or any proclamation, advertisement or notification, set up at any place in this State by authority of any law of the United States or of this State, or by order of any court, such person, on conviction, shall be fined, in a sum not exceeding fifty dollars, nor less than five dollars, or imprisoned, for a term not exceeding one month: Provided, That this section shall not extend to defacing, tearing down, obliterating or destroying any law, proclamation, publication, advertisement or notification, after the time for which the same was by law to remain set up, shall have expired. SEC. 138. Any person able to work and support himself in some honest and respectable calling, not having wherewithal to maintain himself, who shall be found loitering, strolling about, frequenting of public places where liquor is sold, begging or leading an idle, immoral or profligate course of life, shall be liable to be indicted or arrested on the complaint, under oath, of any resident citizen of the county, and carried before any two justices of the peace, who shall examine said accused person, and hear the testimony in relation thereto; and if they shall be satisfied that he is a vagrant, as above set forth, the fact having been established by a jury, which shall in all such cases be summoned and sworn to inquire the truth thereof, |