USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Hamilton > Town of Hamilton Annual Report 1903 > Part 4
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SECT. 20. No person shall move any building through any street in the town unless by authority of a license from the selectmen and under such restrictions as they may see fit to prescribe.
SECT. 21. No person shall fire or discharge any gun or pistol, airgun or other firearm in or across any of the streets or public places within the town ; but this section shall not apply to the use of such weapon at any military exercise or review, under the authority of a commissioned officer of the militia, nor in the law- ful defence of the person, family or property of any citizen, or in the performance of any duty required by law, nor to any person firing a salute by leave of the board of selectmen.
SECT. 22. No person shall make any bonfire or other fire in any of the streets, avenues or public ways of the town without the permission of the selectmen or superintendent of streets.
SECT. 23. Whenever the word street or streets is used in this chapter it shall be understood as meaning to include lanes, alleys, courts, public squares and sidewalks, unless otherwise expressed.
SECT. 24. Any person who shall violate any of the provisions of this chapter shall forfeit and pay, for each offence, a sum not exceeding twenty dollars.
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ACTS OF 1902
CHAP. 315.
An Act to regulate the speed and operation of Automobiles and Motor Vehicles on highways.
SECTION 1. No automobile or other motor vehicle shall be run on any public highway outside the limits of a city, fire dis- trict or thickly settled or business part of a town at a speed ex- ceeding fifteen miles an hour, and no such vehicle shall be run on any public way within the limits of a city, fire district or of ยท any thickly settled or business part of a town at a speed exceed- ing ten miles an hour.
SECT. 2. Every person having control or charge of a motor vehicle or automobile shall, whenever upon a public street or way and approaching any vehicle drawn by a horse or horses, or any horse upon which any person is riding, operate, manage and con- trol such motor vehicle or automobile in such manner as to exer- cise every reasonable precaution to prevent the frightening of any such horse or horses and to insure the safety and protection of any person riding or driving the same. And if such horse or horses appear frightened, the person in control of such motor vehicle shall reduce its speed, and if requested by signal or other- wise by the driver of such horse or horses shall not proceed farther towards such animal unless such movement be necessary to avoid accident or injury or until such animal appears to be under the control of its rider or driver.
SECT. 3. Upon approaching a crossing of intersecting ways, and also in traversing the crossing or intersection, the person in control of a motor vehicle shall run it at a rate of speed less than that above specified, and not greater than is reasonable and proper, having regard to the traffic and the use of the intersecting ways.
SECT. 4. The term "motor vehicle " in this act shall include all vehicles propelled by any power other than muscular power, excepting railroad and railway cars and motor vehicles running only upon rails or tracks.
SECT. 5. Any person violating any provision of this act shall be punished for each offence by a fine not exceeding two hun-
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dred dollars, or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten days, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
SECT. 6. This act shall take effect upon its passage. (Ap- proved April 17, 1902.)
CHAP. 54. Of the Law of the Road.
SECT. 26. (Sect. 1.) When persons meet on a bridge or way, travelling with carriages, wagons, carts, sleds, sleighs, bicycles or other vehicles, each shall seasonably drive his carriage or other vehicle to the right of the middle of the travelled part of such . bridge or way, so that their respective carriages or other vehicles may pass without interference.
(Sect. 2.) The driver of a carriage or other vehicle passing a carriage or other vehicle travelling in the same direction shall drive to the left of the middle of the travelled part of a bridge or way ; and if it is of sufficient width for the two vehicles to pass, the driver of the leading one shall not wilfully obstruct the other.
(Sect. 3.) No person shall travel on a bridge or way with a sleigh or sled drawn by a horse, unless there are at least three bells attached to some part of the harness.
(Sect. 4.) Whoever violates the provisions of this chapter shall, upon complaint made within three months after the commission of the offence, forfeit not more than twenty dollars, and be liable in an action commenced within twelve months after the date of said violation for all damages caused thereby.
CHAPTER II.
PUBLIC HEALTH.
SECTION 1. If the board of health shall at any time be satisfied that any tenement, used as a dwelling-house, is not provided with a suitable privy, vault and drain, or either of them, as aforesaid, it shall give notice in writing to the owner, agent, occupant or other person having the care thereof ; and in case of neglect or refusal to obey such notice the board of health shall cause such privy, vault and drain, or either of them, to be made for such tenement or other building, at the expense of such owner, agent,
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occupant or other person ; and in case any such drain, vault or privy is constructed as aforesaid for the use of more than one house, then the owner, agent, occupant or other person having the charge of each of such houses shall be liable to pay a propor- tional part of such expense.
SECT. 2. Whenever any vault, privy or drain becomes offen- sive or obstructed the same shall be cleansed and made free, and the owner, agent, occupant or other person having charge of the land in which any vault, privy or drain is situated, the state or condition of which is in violation of the provisions of this ordi- nance, shall remove, cleanse, alter, amend or repair the same within such reasonable time after notice in writing to that effect given by the board of health as shall be expressed in such notice. In case of neglect or refusal so to do, the board of health may cause the same to be removed, altered, amended or repaired as they may deem expedient, at the expense of the owner, agent, occupant or other person aforesaid.
SECT. 3. No cesspool, vault or privy situated within one hundred feet of any town-way or public building shall be emptied in any mode or at any other time than the board of health may direct and appoint, subject to such regulations as the board from time to time shall make on the subject, the work referred to to be done at the expense of the owner, agent, occupant or other person having charge of the tenement in which such vault is situated.
SECT. 4. No person shall remove or carry in or through any of the streets, squares, courts, lanes, avenues, places or alleys within the town of Hamilton any house dirt or house offal, either animal or vegetable, or any refuse substance from any of the dwelling-houses or other places in the town unless such person so removing or carrying the same shall have been expressly licensed by the board of health, upon such terms and conditions as it may deem the health and interest of the town require, and the mode in which the same will be moved or carried shall have been expressly prescribed by said board.
SEC. 5. No person shall keep any swine within a distance of fifty feet of any public way or place or within a distance of one
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hundred feet of any dwelling-house not his own, or within a dis- tance of twenty-five feet of his own dwelling-house, without a per- mit of the board of health previously obtained.
SECT. 6. No person shall put or suffer to accumulate on his premises any refuse, animal or vegetable matter, rubbish or filth, whereby any offensive or noxious stench or effluvia shall be cre- ated and the health or comfort of the citizens be injuriously affected, or shall throw any such substance into the streams or brooks of the town not laid out by the town as common sewers, or shall allow the contents of any vault or house-drain or the refuse of manufacturing or slaughtering process to drain into such streams or brooks.
SECT. 7. No person shall throw or suffer to fall into any common sewer in the town or into any inlet of the same, any dead animal, stones, brick, sticks or other substances likely to obstruct the flow of water in the same, and no person shall allow his vault or house-drain to drain into any sewer without first ob- taining from the proper authorities the permission so to do.
SECT. 8. No person without the license of the board of health shall throw into or leave in or upon any street, court, square, lane, alley, public square, public enclosure, vacant lot or any pond or body of water within the limits of the town, any dead animal, dirt, sawdust, soot, ashes, cinders, shavings, hair, shreds, manure, oyster, clam or lobster shells, waste water, rubbish or filth of any kind, or any refuse animal or vegetable matter whatsoever.
SECT. 9. No person shall bring into town any decayed or damaged grain, rice, coffee, fruit, potatoes or other vegetable product, or any tainted or damaged meat or fish, without a per- mit therefor, from and in such a manner only as directed by the board of health.
SECT. 10. Any person who shall violate any provision of this chapter, or who shall refuse or neglect to obey any order of the board of health duly issued under these by-laws, and directed to him, properly served upon him, shall, in cases not otherwise pro- vided for, forfeit and pay for each offence a fine not exceeding twenty dollars.
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CHAP. 78. An Act relative to the Burial of Human Bodies.
SECTION 1. (Sect. 38.) No undertaker or other person shall bury a human body in a city or town, or remove therefrom a hu- man body which has not been buried, except as provided in the following section, until he has received a permit from the board of health or its agent appointed to issue such permits, or if there is no such board, from the clerk of the city or town in which the person died; and no undertaker or other person shall exhume a human body and remove it from a city or town, or from one cem- etery to another, until he has received a permit from the board of health or its agent aforesaid or from the clerk of the city or town in which the body is buried.
No such permit shall be issued until there shall have been de- livered to such board, agent or clerk, as the case may be, a satis- factory written statement containing the facts required by law to be returned and recorded, which statement, in case of an original interment, shall be accompanied by a satisfactory certificate of the attending physician, if any, as required by law, or in lieu thereof a certificate as hereinafter provided. If there is no at- tending physician, or if, for sufficient reasons, his certificate can- not be obtained early enough for the purpose, or is insufficient, the chairman of the board of health, if a physician, or any physi- cian employed by said board or by the selectmen for the purpose, shall upon application make such certificate as is required of the attending physician. If death is caused by violence, the medical examiner only shall make such certificate.
The board of health or its agent, upon receipt of such state- ment and certificate, shall forthwith countersign and transmit it to the clerk of the city or town for registration. The person to whom the permit is so given and the physician who certifies to the cause of death shall thereafter furnish for registration any other necessary information which can be obtained as to the de- ceased, or as to the manner or cause of the death, which the clerk or register may require.
SECT. 2. (Sect. 39.) No undertaker or other person shall bury in a city or town a human body or the ashes thereof which
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have been brought into this commonwealth until he has received a permit so to do from the board of health or its agent appointed to issue such permits, or if there is no such board, from the clerk of the city or town in which the body is to be buried or the fun- eral is to be held, or from a person appointed to have the care of the cemetery or burial ground in which the interment is made, if a record is kept of the names of all persons buried therein, or from a duly appointed superintendent of burials in such city or town who keeps a record of interment.
Such permit shall not be issued until the undertaker or other person has delivered a certificate to said board, agent, clerk, su- perintendent or person having such care, giving the name of the deceased, his age as nearly as can be ascertained, the cause of death, the name of the city or town in which he last resided or from which the body was brought, or, if the death occurred at sea, the name of the vessel upon which it occurred, and any other facts required for record which could be obtained with reasonable exertion. The board of health or its agent or the superintendent or person having such care shall, upon receipt of such certificate, forthwith countersign and transmit it to the city or town clerk ; and if the deceased was a resident of said city or town, the clerk shall record the same in the books kept for re- cording deaths ; but if the deceased was at the time of his death a resident of any other city or town within this Commonwealth, said clerk shall forthwith forward to the clerk thereof a copy of such certificate, who shall record the same.
SECT 3. (Sect. 40.) No person having the care of a ceme- tery or burial ground shall permit a human body to be buried therein, or such body or the ashes thereof to be removed there- from, until the permit for such burial or removal has been deliv- ered to him, nor permit the ashes of a human body to be buried therein until there has been delivered to him a certificate that the burial permit and the certificate of the medical examiner prerequisite to the cremating of said body have been duly presented.
SECT 4. (Sect. 41.) An undertaker shall not bury the ashes of a human body until he has received from the person having the charge of the crematory a certificate that the burial permit
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and the certificate of the medical examiner prerequisite to the cremating of said body have been duly presented.
SECT. 5. (Sect. 42.) Whoever violates any of the pro- visions of the four preceding sections shall forfeit not more than fifty dollars.
SECT. 6. (Sect. 43.) No common carrier or other person shall convey or cause to be conveyed through or from any city or town in this Commonwealth, the body of any person who has died of small-pox, scarlet fever, diphtheria or typhus fever until such body has been so encased and prepared as to preclude any danger of contagion or infection by its transportation ; and no city or town clerk or agent of the board of health shall give a permit for the removal of such body until he has received from the board of health of the city or from the selectmen of the town in which the death occurred a certificate stating the cause of death and that said body has been prepared in the manner pre- scribed in this section, which certificate shall be delivered to the agent or person who receives the body.
Whoever violates the provisions of this section shall forfeit not more than twenty-five dollars.
SECT. 7. (Sect. 44.) The board of health of cities and towns shall annually, on or before the first day of May, license a suitable number of undertakers who can read and write the English language. Such license shall be issued upon such terms and conditions as the board of health may prescribe and may be revoked at any time by the board if its terms or condi- tions or any requirements of law relative thereto have been vio- lated by the undertaker. An undertaker who has been so licensed may act in any city or town.
CHAPTER III. CEMETERIES.
SECTION 1. No person shall inter, or cause to be interred, any dead body in a grave less than three feet deep from the surface of the ground surrounding the grave to the top of the coffin.
SECT. 2. No person shall bury or inter, or cause to be buried or interred, any dead body at any other tlme of the day except
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between sun rising and sun setting except by permission of board of health.
SECT. 3. All persons are prohibited from gathering any flow- ers, either wild or cultivated, or removing, breaking, cutting or marking any tree or shrub or plant not belonging to their lot.
SECT. 4. All persons are prohibited from climbing over, writ- ing upon, defacing or injuring any monument, gravestone, fence or other structure in or belonging to the cemetery.
SECT. 5. All persons are prohibited from discharging firearms of any description in the cemetery, and from attempting in any manner to destroy or annoy the birds.
SECT. 6. Any person who shall violate any of the provisions of this chapter shall forfeit and pay, for each offence, a sum not exceeding twenty dollars.
CHAPTER IV. CHAP. 212.
SECTION T. (Sect. 66.) Whoever wilfully destroys, mutilates, defaces, injures or removes a tomb, monument, gravestone or other structure or thing placed or designed for a memorial of the dead, or a fence, railing, curb or other thing intended for the protection or ornament of a tomb, monument, gravestone or other structure before montioned, or of an enclosure for the bur- ial of the dead, or wilfully destroys, mutilates, removes, cuts, breaks or injures a tree, shrub or plant placed or being within such enclosure, or wantonly or maliciously disturbs the contents of a tomb or grave, shall be punished by fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or by imprisonment in the jail or house of cor- rection not exceeding three years.
SECT. 8. (Sect. 67.) Whoever wrongfully, and by any act not included in the provisions of the preceding section, destroys, in- jures or removes a building, fence, railing or other thing lawfully erected in or around a place of burial or cemetery, or a tree, shrub or plant situate within its limits, or wrongfully injures a walk or path, or places rubbish or offensive matter, or commits a nuisance therein, or in any way desecrates or disfigures the same, shall forfeit for every such offence not less than five nor more than one
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hundred dollars. Upon trial of a prosecution for the recovery of such penalty, use and occupation for the purposes of burial shall be deemed sufficient evidence of title.
Regulating the Dealing and Keeping of Junk.
SECTION 1. The selectmen or a majority of them may grant licenses to such persons as to them may appear proper and suit- able persons to be dealers in and keepers of shops for the pur- chase, sale or barter of junk, old metal or second-hand articles.
SECT. 2. Every dealer and keeper of a shop for the purchase, sale or barter of junk, old metal or second-hand articles, shall keep a book in which shall be written, at the time of the purchase of any such article, a description thereof, the name, age and res- idence of the person from whom and the day and hour when such purchase was made; and such book shall at all times be open to the inspection of the selectmen or any police officer or constable of the town. Every dealer or keeper of such shop shall put in some suitable and conspicuous place on his wagon or shop a sign having his name and occupation legibly inscribed thereon in large letters, and such wagon and shop and all articles of mer- chandise therein may be at all times examined by the selectmen or officer or constable of the town.
No dealer or keeper of such wagon or shop shall, directly or in- directly, either purchase or receive by way of barter or exchange, any of the articles aforesaid of a minor or apprentice, knowing or having reason to believe him to be such. No article purchased or received shall be sold until at least one week from date of its purchase or receipt has elapsed.
SECT. 3. Any person who shall violate any of the provisions of this chapter shall forfeit and pay, for each offence, a sum not exceeding twenty dollars.
CHAPTER V. General Explosives.
SECTION 1. No person shall keep or have in his possession any explosive other than gunpowder in any place or building within thirty rods of any dwelling house, or within fifteen rods of
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any other building, and no person shall keep or have in his pos- session any such explosive in quantities of more than one hundred pounds at any place within the settled limits of the town. But the selectmen may grant licenses for the sale and keeping of such explosives, in quantities of not more than fifty pounds, pro- vided the same shall be kept at all times in a metallic case to be located in such part of the licensed premises that it may be easily found and removed in case of fire ; and the location shall be de- termined or approved by the board of fire engineers, and the se- lectmen may grant licenses for the erection and maintenance of magazines for the storage of explosives in such locations and of such material as they may deem safe.
Gunpowder.
SECT. 2. No person shall keep in any shop, store or other building within the town, which shall be within the distance of twenty-five rods from any other building, more than fifty pounds of gunpower, the same to be secured in tight casks or canisters. No person shall keep in any shop, store or other building within the town, within ten rods of any other building, more than twenty- five pounds of gunpowder, and no person shall keep any gunpow- der in any place within the town unless the same is well secured in copper, tin or brass canisters holding not more than five pounds each and closely covered with copper, brass or tin covers.
Nitro-Glycerine.
SECT. 3. No person shall keep or have in his possession any nitro-glycerine within thirty rods of any dwelling house, or in any place or building within fifteen rods of another building within the town without a license from the selectmen setting forth the manner, place and maximum quantity in which it shall be kept.
SECT. 4. Any person who shall violate any of the provisions of this chapter shall forfeit and pay, for each offence, a sum not exceeding twenty dollars.
CHAPTER VI.
TRUANCY.
SECTION 1. The Town of Hamilton hereby avails itself of the
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several provisions of the statutes of this Commonwealth, now in force, relative to habitual absentees from school, and in pursuance of authority conferred thereby adopts the following by-laws :-
SECT. 2. All children between the ages of seven and sixteen years residing in said town and who may be found wandering about the streets or public places of said town, having no lawful occupation or business, not attending school, and growing up in ignorance, shall be committed to the Essex County School for confinement, instruction and discipline.
SECT. 3. One or more truant officers shall be appointed an- nually, whose duty it shall be to inquire into all violations of the truant laws and laws relating to compulsory education, and to do all acts required of them by the laws of the Commonwealth.
SECT. 4. It shall be the duty of every truant officer, previous to making any complaint under these laws, to notify the truant or absentee from school, also his parent or guardian, of the of- fence committed, and of the penalty therefor, and if the truant officer can obtain satisfactory pledges for the restraint and refor- mation of the child he may at his discretion forbear to prosecute, so long as such pledges are faithfully kept.
SECT. 5. It shall be the duty of the school committee, the teachers of the public schools and the citizens in general to aid the truant officer as far as possible in the discharge of his duties.
SECT. 6. It shall be the duty of the truant officer to keep a full record of all his official acts, and make an annual report there- of to the school committee, who shall publish the same with their report.
SECT. 7. Nothing in these by-laws shall be so construed as to alter or impair the obligation and duty of teachers to enforce punctuality and regularity of attendance, and preserve good order and discipline.
CHAPTER VII.
TRAMPS.
SECTION 1. The Town of Hamilton hereby avails itself of the following provisions of the revised laws, and shall enforce the same : -
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Revised Laws.
SECT. 2. (Sect. 56.) Whoever, not being a minor under seventeen years of age, a blind person or a person asking charity within his own city or town, roves about from place to place beg- ging, or living without labor or visible means of support, shall be deemed a tramp. An act of begging or soliciting alms, whether of money, food, lodging or clothing, by a person having no resi- dence in the town within which the act is committed, or the rid- ing upon a freight train of a railroad, whether within or without any car or part thereof, without a permit from the proper officers or employees of such railroad or train, shall be prime facie evi- dence that such a person is a tramp.
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