86 Wis. 626 | Wis. | 1893
When the offense charged in the information was committed, and immediately before and after that time, none of the plaintiffs in error had any visible means to maintain himself, and each of them was an idle person living without employment. Each was wandering about, and living in outhouses and barns, and in the open air, and failed to give a good account of himself. Each of them was, therefore, a vagrant, and vagrancy is a crime punishable by imprisonment. R. S. secs. 1543-1546. As such vagrants, they associated and confederated together to continue their criminal career., All.of them were adults, and in the execution of such criminal purpose they wandered together into the village of Kansasville, of which village none of them were residents, and none of them were called there on any lawful business or for any lawful purpose. Thus, they were tramps, as well as vagrants, and it is also a crime to be a tramp. S. & B. Ann. Stats, sec. 1547A These crimes they conspired and confederated together to commit. Acting together as confederates, they attempted to steal a passage on a railway train from Union Gfrove to Burlington without paying fare, and after boarding the train they refused to pay fare. This was an unlawful, if not a criminal, act, and they were joint trespassers on the train. After being ejected from the train at Kansasville they continued together their criminal career as vagrants and tramps until late at night, when they went to Mr. Collar’s place, and, when substantially together and acting in concert, three of them committed the crime of larceny by stealing Mr. Collar’s fowls. In the commission of this crime they are also chargeable as confederates. This brings the joint career of the plaintiffs in error down to within less than two.
The proof of most of the above facts is undisputed, and the proof of all of them is so overwhelming that the trial court was abundantly justified in regarding them as verities in the case. The crime charged in the information is oné against property. It requires no argument or citation of authorities to demonstrate that the evidence sufficiently establishes the conspiracy and confederacy between the plaintiffs in error to commit crimes of the same nature-during the night the offense- charged in the information was committed, and to justify the giving of the instruction under consideration, without submitting to the jury the question of the existence of such conspiracy and confederacy.
By the Court.— The judgment of the circuit court is affirmed.