1908 Postcard catches boys stealing a gate as a common Halloween prank.
Halloween can be a terrible time for defenders of order and morals.
Has it always been so? Let’s pick a date and go back. How about 1907 in Pittsburgh ?
The Pittsburg Press can take us back.
Oh my! It is much worse then than now.
The newspaper reported scores of men arrested for dressing as women. Similar numbers of women were arrested for donning men’s clothes — some ladies even tried getting into saloons that way.
Okay, so crossdressing doesn’t offend you.
How about hugging strangers?
Police officers dutifully rounded up people, probably drunken, who were caught hugging people they didn’t know.
The biggest problem, though, was when men and boys linked themselves together arm-in-arm and marched wedge-like down the street to plow up or over whomever they encountered.
Many ended up in hospitals.
It is a common practice going back to ancient times. Whenever males sense they have enough numbers to take on a mob, they form a wedge.
It was outlawed by Pittsburg, Allegheny and many surrounding communities in 1908. (yes, that’s how Pittsburgh was spelled at the time.)
Also banned was the annoying and often dangerous practice of thrusting ticklers (feather dusters) into people’s faces along the Halloween parade route.
Throwing talcum powder or flour into an unsuspecting face also was popular. Probably the result of watching too much vaudeville.
All of this and much more can be found in a single issue of the Pittsburg Press here. Samples of the reported Halloween mayhem follow: