BALTIMORE CITY. 1235

common thief or common pickpocket shall be fined not exceeding one
thousand dollars or be imprisoned in jail or in the House of Correction
or in the penitentiary for a period not exceeding five years, or be both
fined and imprisoned within the limits above prescribed in the discretion
of the court; but if any person is arrested or indicted a second time or
more for such offense, he shall be convicted only on proof that he has
continued to be a common thief or pickpocket since his last conviction or
acquittal, and it shall be necessary to charge in the indictment only that
the person is a common thief or common pickpocket, and any evidence,
either of facts or reputation, proving that such person is habitually and
by practice a thief or pickpocket, shall be sufficient for his conviction if
satisfactorily establishing the fact to the court or jury by whom he is
tried, and there shall be no discretion in any police officer or police justice
to discharge or release any person who is by such proof before them or
knowledge on their part shown to be a thief or pickpocket as aforesaid,
but. such person shall be bailed or committed for trial; and no conviction
or charge of or for being a common thief or pickpocket shall prevent any
such person from being tried and convicted for any^ particular act of
larceny he may have committed.

World v. State. 50 Md. 49.

1864, ch. 38. P. L. L. (1888). Art. 4, sec. 759.

784. If any person shall be arrested at any place on the line of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, or on the line of the Northern Central Rail-
road, or on the line of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Rail-
road, or in any of the cars or depots, or at any of the stations on said
roads, or on any ferryboat employed to carry passengers over any part of
said road, and within the limits of this State, charged with being a com-
mon thief or pickpocket, such person may be taken before any Justice of
the Peace of the county in which said place or depot or station may be
situated; or if such person be arrested in any car, or on any ferry-boat,
before any Justice of the Peace of the nearest convenient county or any
station house Justice of the City of Baltimore; and such Justice shall, on
proof, as provided in the preceding section, commit or bail such person
for trial before the Circuit Court of the county or the Criminal Court of
Baltimore, as the case may be; and all police officers of Baltimore City,
and all conductors of trains and police employed by any of said railway
companies, and all constables and bailiffs of any county or city on the lines
of said road, shall arrest all such persons at any of the places aforesaid,
on the same knowledge and proof of their being common thieves or pick-
pockets as provided in the preceding section, and the said Justice shall
commit or bail such person on the same knowledge or proof; and any
person convicted in any county on the line of said roads of being a com-
mon pickpocket, shall be punished by a fine or imprisonment in the jail
of the county for the same time and in the same amount as provided in
the preceding section; and all the provisions of the preceding section shall
apply to all cases under this section, except so far as altered by this section.