Ypsilanti City Ordinance: Throw a Snowball, Get 30 Days in Jail

With snow on the horizon, Dusty D would like to caution fellow Ypsilantians that a city ordinance bans citizens from the aerial casting of spheres of snow, informally known as throwing snowballs. Scofflaws get jail time. I hereby quote the ordinance, as printed in the December 8, 1877 Ypsilanti Commercial:

REVISED ORDINANCE NO. 2.

An Ordinance Relative to Throwing Stones, Snowballs, Pieces of Wood, and other solid substances.

The Common Council of the City of Ypsilanti orders:
Section 1. No person shall, in any public street or alley, or in any public ground or place, in said city, throw or hurl at or towards any building, window, public or private street, lamp, or at or towards any person, animal, or thing, any ball of snow, a mass of snow packed together or any piece of ice, or any stone, or any piece or block of wood, or any solid substance whatsoever.

Section 2. Any person violating the provisions of this ordinance shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not less than one dollar, nor more than five dollars [$20-$100 dollars today], together with the costs of prosecution, and in failing to pay such fine and the costs of prosecution, may be imprisoned in the county jail, of the County of Washtenaw, for a term of not less than three not more than 30 days, unless such fine and the costs of prosecution be sooner paid...

Made and passed in Common Council this third day of December, A.D. 1877. Approved, December 4, 1877. L A. BARNES, Mayor.