Judge — February 22, 1930 — page 15: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Hooray for Law Enforcement! ors Chairman Wickersham of the President's com- mission on law observance know that bootblacks in Francisco must clip the hems of ladies’ dresses to the tops of their shoes, with suitable clips, while shining their shoes? That in Virginia a steam train moving on its tracks after dark must be preceded by a man, walking or on horseback, carrying a lighted red lantern? That in Pennsylvania it is illegal to destroy a beer keg? That the sale of confetti is prohibited in Detroit ? These are just a few of the hundreds of unenforced laws that are being dug up by e's campaign for | enforcement. And we have only begun. Our offer to pay for the best examples of such laws—Federal, State or municipal—has brought a deluge of contributions from all parts of this Land of the Fre The names of contributors to whom we have sent $5 cach for the laws cited in this editorial appear on page of this issue. More will appear next week. Many failed to qualify because they sent laws which had been previously mentioned on this page. For exampk the one which we printed in the January 11 issue, provid ing that when two railroad trains appre both shall stop and neither shall proceed until the other has passed. This is attributed to so many different States in so many different forms that we begin to wonder whether it really exists anywhere. We will pay $5 to the first person who sends us the correct phraseology and the reference by which it can be confirmed. ch an intersection Another favorite is the Federal statute which makes it illegal anywhere in this country to issue a check for less than one dollar. Various persons sent us this, but we have paid th to the first who sent us the exact referen Feverat Law that is probably broken more often than any other is this: On every package of ciga- rettes it is stated that it is illegal to open the pacl without destroying the stamp thereon. Millions of per- sons every day break the foil up to the stamp, but leave the stamp int: L122#'s one we picked ourselves from the newspapers: In Wisconsin recently a woman who drove her car through a fire line discharged by the judge ynder a statute of 1822, which provides that “no female shall be arrested in any action except for a wilful injury to person, cter or property.” Query: Should we the Associated Press $5 for that? @ Blowing a steamboat whistle is illegal in La Crosse, Wisconsin. © Dancing in a public hall with the lights turned low or dimmed is prohibited in Minnesota. G In Buffalo it is illegal to keep a milk bottle more than twenty-four hours. G In Michigan it is illegal for a girl to wear a college boy's fraternity pin. © Salesmen are forbidden to call at residences in Peru, N. Y., during the forenoon. @ It is unlawful for any citizen of South Carolina to go to church on Sunday without carrying his gun. © In Corvallis, Oregon, young ladies are prohibited from drinking coffee at evening meals except on Friday and Saturday. @ In Goodland, Kansas, there is a law which forbids the use of automobiles on the main street. In Pennsylvania it is illegal to coast a motor-car down grade on a highway with the gears in neutral. G In Ollic, Iowa, no person shall rove about the streets later than eleven o'clock P. M. without reasonable excuse or on necessary business. S ome of the laws mentioned sound rather fishy—for ex- ample, Herbert Zarling of Worcester writes that in Massachusetts it is illegal for a man to marry his wife's grandmother. If he can send us proof of this he shall have $5. Ina few cases we are paying for freak laws which are essentially permissive rather than prohibitive, such as the one in Virginia that says a man shall not beat his wife with a stick thicker than his thumb. Finally, we blush to report that a number of our readers quite earnestly call attention to the failure to enforce a certain amendment to the Constitution, the Eighteenth, sequent act of Congress known as the Volstead positively refuse to pay anybody $5 for this information. If Prohibition really isn’t being enforced after all these years, the less said about it the better. R.J.W. comicbooks.com