Notes from a dangerous age

Here's something I just ran across in Vincent's Police Code and General Manual of the Criminal Law, 16th edn., 1924, which contains an alphabetical survey of all the duties of police officers.

Under 'O', we find:

Orange or Banana Peel.--1. The police should remove pieces of orange or banana peel when seen on the pavement, frequent accidents occurring by passengers slipping thereon.

2. If orange or banana peel is wilfully and continually thrown on a pavement, with the evident design of causing annoyance and exposing the public to danger, the delinquent may be summoned or apprehended, and charged with throwing rubbish on a thoroughfare. (See Highways.) [p. 171]

Insight into the concerns of the period is also provided by the fact that this edition contained a lengthy entry under 'Anarchism', drawing particular attention to the dangers of 'outrages' caused by the throwing of bombs or, more mysteriously, 'infernal machines'.

Of your run-of-the-mill anarchist, however, it is noted: 'This class of person is often, apart from the dangerous opinions he possesses, harmless in himself.' [p.13]