Commonwealth v. Bowser

Citations

• 61 Pa. Super. 107
• 1915 Pa. Super. LEXIS 276

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Protection of female children — Acts of June 11, 1879, P. J. llfi, and May 28, 1885, P. L. 27.</p> <p>The provisions of the Act of June 11, 1879, P. L. 142, entitled “An Act to protect children from neglect and cruelty and relating to their employment, protection and adoption,” are radically enlarged by the supplementary Act of May 28, 1885, P. L. 27.</p> <p>On the trial of an indictment for enticing a female child under sixteen years of age for purposes of prostitution “into, about or in the immediate vicinity of the sheds, buildings and structures of the Independent Refinery, and upon or near the right of way of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company” in violation of the Act of May 28, 1885, P. L. 27, which makes it a misdemeanor to entice such a child for such a purpose “into a house of ill-fame, or of assignation, or elsewhere,” the trial judge commits no error in his charge in construing the word “elsewhere” as meaning any place convenient for such a purpose.</p> <p>The word is to be interpreted in its plain and dictionary sense— in another place, or in other places, somewhere or anywhere else,— than in a house of ill-fame or assignation.</p> <p>On the trial of such an indictment, it is not material to investigate the reputation of the child for chastity.</p>