Compiled by Lasca Randels

WARSAW — Every state has some bizarre laws on the books, some of which are outdated. Although they are often not enforced, many have not been repealed and are technically still in place.

For example, in Indiana, you are not permitted to take baths between the months of October and March, it is illegal for a man to stand in a bar and no one may catch a fish with their bare hands.

In 1932, the following laws were all in place in Warsaw:

• To ride a bicycle faster than 12 miles an hour or across a street crossing faster than eight miles an hour.
• To operate a bicycle without sounding a bell attached to it when approaching within less than 40 feet from a street crossing.
• To ride a bicycle from twilight until daylight the next day without displaying a lighted headlight.
• To ride a bicycle on the sidewalk.
• To throw a banana peel on the sidewalks or steps.
• To throw paper on the sidewalks.
• To distribute handbills, cards, circulars or posters.
• For children under 16 years to wander about the city after 10 p.m.
• To erect telephone poles or electric light poles unless the same are painted.
• To use such poles for advertising purposes.
• To use such poles as hitch racks for horses.
• To fish on Sunday.
• To sound a false fire alarm.
• To drive your horse faster than a trot.
• For three or more persons to congregate or assemble on any sidewalk or street corner to the obstruction or delay of any person passing or annoyance of owner or occupants of contiguous property.
• To molest any city officer in the performance of his official duty. Fine for this is up to $100 and 30 days in jail. 
• To enter Oakwood Cemetery with a dog, gun or firearm or to discharge firecrackers there.
• To operate a vehicle faster than a walk in the cemetery.
• To gather flowers, wild or cultivated, in the cemetery.
• To write on or deface or injure any monument in the cemetery.
• For any visitor in the cemetery to pay any person employed there any money.
• For children to enter the cemetery without their parents.
• To disturb the quiet by any noise or improper conduct in the cemetery.
• To touch another person in a rude or insolent and angry manner.
• To provoke any person by words, signs or gestures.
• To use obscene language.
• To swim or bathe in the nude in any river or lake during daylight within the limits of the city of Warsaw.
• To permit a hog, boar or sow to run at-large. If the owner does not appear within 48 hours after notification by the town marshal, same shall be sold at public auction.
• To permit snow and ice to accumulate on the sidewalks. Walks must be cleaned before 9 a.m. of all ice and snow.
• To jump on or off or attempt to do so, of any locomotive, while same is in motion.
• To circulate any obscene publications.
• To permit chickens to run at large.
• To conduct a public auction on the sidewalks.
• To deposit ashes or litter of any kind in street gutters.
• To fire a gun within the city limits.
• To permit shade trees to have branches lower than 10 feet.
• To permit awnings to extend lower than seven and one-half feet above the sidewalk.
• To operate a traction engine on any paved street.
• To bring into the city any store for the sale of bankrupt goods or stocks or for temporary sale of goods without paying a license fee of $50 per day.
• To fail to display the street number of your home or building in manner provided by ordinance.
• To erect a sidewalk not in conformity with the grade set by the city engineer.
• To sell firecrackers before the first day of July.
• To maintain or grow any willow or Carolina poplar trees upon any street wherein there is a sewer.
• To operate a junk shop, picture show, pool room, bowling alley, skating rink and certain entertainments without first obtaining a city license.
• To operate a taxicab without paying a city license fee.
• To operate a motorcycle or auto without a muffler.
• For any pedestrian to cross the street in the middle of the block between crossings or to stand or congregate in the streets.
• For any person operating motorcycles or bicycles to carry any person as passenger.
• To deposit garbage or any offensive matter in anything except approved covered galvanized receptacles.
• To maintain privy vaults.
• To permit weeds to grow on your property.
• To operate trains through the city faster than 25 miles per hour.
• To permit trains to remain across any highway longer than five minutes.
• To permit your dog to run at large between June 1 and Oct. 1 without a muzzle.
• To permit your dog to trespass on the property of another person to the annoyance of such person. Any such dog may be shot and killed by the owner or occupant of such premise without anywise being a trespasser.

Information for this article is courtesy of the Kosciusko County Historical Society.