Ladies, Don't Wear a Costume Into a Bar on Halloween

Regulations of years past.

These days the authorities regulate Halloween by banning holiday parties at school or by telling sex offenders they aren't allowed to put decorations on their lawns. But what about in years past, when no parents were offended by witch outfits and no one had heard of a sex-offender registry? I give you "Police Regulation for Halloween Are Issued," published 105 years ago today in the Pittsburgh Gazette Times. My favorite part: "Women in costume will be arrested if they enter places where liquor is sold."

Comments

[waffles]

I'm going to flaunt this law so hard. Time to bust out the ticklers and talcum powder it's almost Halloween time!

[AlmightyJB]

Those people knew how to party.

[jesse.in.mb]

But people might be allergic to the feathers and talcum powder could be very hard on those with bronchial ailments!

[AlmightyJB]

They probably had peanuts sitting out openly in the bar too. Insensitive bastards.

[Tommy_Grand]

what about french ticklers?

[BakedPenguin]

Since the complaint was that they carry disease, I'm thinking that's what they were talking about.

[Episiarch]

I can't tell if it's reassuring or frightening to see that control freak scumbag busybody dickheads have always been with us.

[Auric Demonocles]

Is the alt-text haunted?

I will admit that I've found it odd when a bar lets people in with masks. Given how paranoid they can be about serving minors, it seems like something the state would have cracked down on.

[Tonio]

It's generally illegal for adults to wear masks in public in most places. Not sure if bars count as "public" for this purpose, but bars are really loath to do anything that might endanger their liquor licenses.

Does anyone know how motorcyclists get away with those skull face bandannas? Saftey gear exception?

[Being Waterboarded]

Lots of people in northern states wear masks outside in winter in public. This does not mean that there is no law against it in such states (I have no idea), but what a stupid law that would be.

[pmains]

Virginia has such a law. It's a classic "dead-letter law," that is rarely enforced except when the police are groping for something to charge you with. The original targets were Klan members, but we also had a "crackdown" on campus when I was in college. Apparently, there was a "disruptive" game of what I took to be an elaborate form of tag called "assassins." As far as I could tell, neither I nor any other non-participants were disrupted, but campus police (who were also, technically, state troopers) needed something to charge people with because ... the hell if I know.

[SamHell]

Was that like the movie "Gotcha"? Hit men with paint ball guns?

[Generic Stranger]

It's generally illegal for adults to wear masks in public in most places.

[Citation Needed]

[Fist of Etiquette]

Ye Olde Timey Yinzer required law and order above all else.

[Mad Scientist]

The "ticklers" are barred principally because of complaints that they carry disease.

Out through the night and the whispering breezes,
To the place where they keep the imaginary diseases...

[Brian]

Hey, back in the day, they were just using their newly discovered knowledge about germs.

To them, banning ticklers because they carry disease was embracing science and enlightened thought. They could look down on people who didn't know that's how diseases are spread.

In 100 years, people will be making fun of the ideas we are smug about today.

[Fatty Bolger]

I've always thought that they will be very amused by the ubiquitous global warming slash climate change references.

[Kaptious Kristen]

So no slutty Clara Barton or Florence Nightingale costumes?

[Paul.]

Only slutty Clara Barton costumes.

[Ska]

If you add a cheesy painting of the beach does she become Clara Barton Fink?

[Tonio]

For as long as I can remember (sixties and forward) some parents have been offended by the whole concept of halloween, particularly witches. The worst thing ever was when you tried to trick or treat at some fundie household and got a lecture about how halloween was putting your soul in immortal danger, and got a Chick tract instead of candy. These people believed that even dressing as a witch one night a year was a personal invitation to Satan to steal your soul.

[Mad Scientist]

It's amusing to me that most kids have a better perspective on stupid than some adults.

[Tonio]

Actually, as I grew older I realized those families were actually providing a creepy experience to the trick or treaters. Which is probably why they didn't get more crap from the other parents.

[jesse.in.mb]

Umm, how many of those fundie families would be horrified that you ended up a Devil-worshiping sodomite?

Clearly they were correct in their assessment.

[Tonio]

All of them? Plus, I was raised catholic, so was already doomed

For the record I don't worship anything, but in that mindset if you're not worshiping their god, and doing so in the correct way, you're a devil worshipper even if you don't know it.

[Brett L]

Tonio's boyfriend (husband?) may be suave, but Old Nick himself? Just because a man wears a suit and a Van Dyke beard well, does not make him The Devil.

[Tonio]

I don't have a partner. "And yet, still incredibly single." LOL

[Brett L]

Some day your prince will come.

[jesse.in.mb]

Some day your prince of darkness will come.

[font_of_stupidity]

Some day your prince will come.

Don't we have pills to treat ED?

[Tonio]

Ask Bob Dole. 😛

[Long Range Boredom]

Satan actually doesn't come off that bad in terms of actual scripture (in the context of how it's viewed today, not necessarily its historical or theological underpinnings). Just seems like a typical 'trickster' god trope rather than some blatantly evil monster.

"HA, God made himself a couple of thought-slaves eh? Well I'll just get them to eat this apple and I can troll both of them for thousands of years."

"Oh hey Jesus, starving yourself in the desert eh? Throw yourself off this cliff and I'll give you food and land and stuff." *snickers* "Satan, I'm seriously tired of your bullshit."

[Jimbo BTR]

You forgot: tricking god into screwing over one of his most devout subjects, all for the high purpose of winning a bet with the devil.

Who wants to worship such a shallow prick?

[AlmightyJB]

Yeah I remember when reading Harry Potter was going to send you to hell.

[Tonio]

We didn't have HP when I was a kid, but they did get exercised over Bewitched.

[jesse.in.mb]

My parents were extremely upset by an "article," forwarded over email, about how Harry Potter leads directly to witchcraft and Satanism and would not let it go even after I pointed out that it was a slightly edited The Onion article.

Me: "Mom it's a satire website"
Mom: "That doesn't mean it isn't true"

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

At what point did you point your wand at them and yell "Langlock!"

[Eduard van Haalen]

Sounds like an interesting childhood.

[jesse.in.mb]

I thought it was normal, but I've been told by some (including extended family) that it bordered on farcical.

[Zeb]

The funniest thing to me about that sort of thing is that they believe that it is real. And that it is going to be harmful even to the vast majority of readers who know full well that it is just fantasy.

[Eduard van Haalen]

The first about good wizards since Thomas Dixon's *The Clansman, an Historical Romance, of the Ku Klux Klan.*

[Eduard van Haalen]

first *book*

[carol]

Those people are the reason God made eggs and toilet paper.

I miss eggin'

[Death Rock and Skull]

I think you must have misinterpreted their Halloween schtick. If done subtly, the Jack Chick religious freak theme can be one of the scariest possible ways to celebrate Halloween.

[radar]

Years ago, I lived in a neighborhood like this. Pensacola is a VERY fundie town, and when I took my son out for his first ever trick-or-treating, we had to walk the better part of a mile to hit five houses because all the Jesus freaks kept their porch lights off and wouldn't answer the door.

Assholes.

[The Late P Brooks]

So, only naked chicks at the bar? I might go out.

[Ted Levy]

"My favorite part: "Women in costume will be arrested if they enter places where liquor is sold.""

Of interest, this was also the favorite part of the arresting officers...

[Enough About Palin]

I loved the headlines Negro Attacks Girl and Orphans to Entertain.

[Eduard van Haalen]

There was also the "Cocaine Sold in Schools" story, the story about a woman designing and building her own house out of packing-crate wood, and the article about the woman fired from a department store because she was too pretty and distracted the male customers. The latter story is dated because (a) she didn't sue and (b) many men sent her proposals of marriage as opposed to proposals to skip the marriage part and get straight to doing the nasty.

[Tonio]

No, no, orphans are very entertaining.

[wheelock]

Untidy prisoners are to receive a good cleansing

[Juice]

What is a "police regulation"? Did the cops just up and decide to enforce their will?

[Death Rock and Skull]

Sort of like a "police order".

Example:
Police Order:
No Parking Because Big Gay Parade Today