The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-09
OBSOLETE CITY LAWS.
Some Ordinances That Have No Bearing
on Modern Conditions.

some ordinances THAI nave No neaTinB
on Modern Conditions.
The city ordinances Of New York have
for many years been in a jumbed and often
contradictory form. They have been re-
vised and amended again and gain, though
never in q very comprehensive manner.
The Aldermen themselves explain the
trouble as due to the fact that they have
not been able TO secure h expert Legal
advice which they require. There are still
I extant some ordinances which are so clearly
| obsolete that their tardy repeal ia advo-
| Gated by q committee Of the Aldermen.
Ordinance OS3 OF the revised ordinances
provides that PARTICLES of furniture nay be
exposed for sale and sold at six places only,
Peck Slip, Buring Slip, Old Slip, Broad
street between Church and Washington,
| and the square in front OF Greenwich Mar
ket on a line with Christopher street, west
OF Greenwich avenue.
Ordinance $50 imposes a penalty Of BIC
for the sale at auction OF any carriage or
carriages, any animal or animals Of any
description on any public street except at
the corner Of Park ven and Eighty-siKth
street. This regulation has Q obsolete
for fully thirty years.
Ordinance ia declares that no cannon
or piece Of artillery shall be fired of from
Castle Garden NOV the Aquarium) except
in the direction OF and toward the westerly
shore Of the Hudson River.
The old Common Council adopted 0rdin-
ance 723, which provides that no person
shall use or have on any street OF New
York amy calcium, Drummond or other
light Of intense briliancy unless by the
Mayors permission" nor shall any person
place any such light upon any house in the
| city so that the same shall reflect or shine
upon any street or avenue. What about
Broadway
l. Section 500 requires car drivers to pay
81 a year to the city for that privilege, and
the ordinance provides that every such
driver while at work shall wear conspicu-
ously upon his breast a badge having legibly
engraved thereon the words Licensed
Car Driver.'' This ordinance has for years
been disregarded on the horse car lines.
Ordinance 083 is an old one. IL declares
that any person who shall ty a kite in any
street, lane or venue in New York south
OF Fourteenth street must pay a fine OF t5.
Ordinance 68l is not only obsolete, but
absurd, for it provides a penalty Of SIC
for any one who shall swim or battle in the
waters Of the East or Hudson River adjacent
10 any ferry or the Battery, though
the city OF New York maintains bathing
pavilions at several such points.
Ordinance 71s is local in character,
that Is, IL makes a local exemption. Here
it IL in full:
"NO person shall fire, discharge or set
on In the city OF New York any rocket,
cracker, torpedo, squib or balloon or other
fireworks or thing containing any substance
in a state Of combustion under penalty
Of Is for zach offence. This provision shall
not apply to the grounds Of the southeast
corner Of 127th street and Fifth avenue"
The venerable ordinances which illum-
mate the wisdom OF early. city fathers
are not limited to firewood as a fuel, but
also include GOAL, though some of them
would seem to have been adopted at an
early period in the nations life before
coal was In general use. Ordinance 61s
provides that coal sold from any coal
yard or other place shall be sold by the
bushel, except anthracite coal, which may
be sold by the bushel or weight as the seller
and purchaser may agree