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In Kansas trains approaching a cross-road must stop and neither proceed until the other has gone; in Connecticut a man was arrested for kissing his wife; and in Cambridge no person shall allow a goat to graze in the street.
No Swearing
Investigation shows that this city has an interesting variety of "Thou Shalt Not's." You can't shoot a bow and arrow without a permit; and for every use of indecent language there's a fine. There will also be no bell-ringing except during prescribed hours.
The majority of these laws appear on inspection to be rather old. For instance, the banana skin rule was last amended in 1902; it reads, "No person shall throw or place upon any sidewalk or cross-walk any banana skin, orange peel, or slippery substance."
In 1893 the livestock ordinance also received adjustment. Not only goats, but domestic fowl, sheep, swine, horses, oxen, and cows are positively not allowed to roam at large through the streets.
Dogs constitute the principle menace, with more than a half-dozen rules controlling them. No biters, barkers, or other objectionable types are tolerated.
Proof of the importance of the road in civilization appears in the amount of space devoted to it by the rule book. Cantabridgians appear to have been having trouble with their streets even before the Water Works Department first appeared to fear up the pavement by the Union.
Almost nothing may be legally thrown into the street, ice, hair, mud: you can't even beat a carpet there, or tie a horse to a tree.
No Loiterers
"No person," states the first ordinance on the subject, "shall remain for a longer time than 20 minutes upon a sidewalk in such a manner as to obstruct the free passage of foot travellers."
Any man who is still loitering five minutes after the policeman asked him to more on becomes a criminal.
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