A regular contributor on another cycling board regularly digs up these oldies but goodies.
From Sept 1893 Sporting life.
http://la84foundation.org/SportsLibr.../SL2124008.pdf
Among other bits;
"How many people know that there is a law in New York which distinctly says you must not use, employ or exhibit or train a child under sixteen to ride upon a bicycle?"
And;
"A Chicago policeman found a man wheeling a bicycle along a back
street one evening of last week, and suspecting that he had stolen it,
arrested him and took him and the machine to the station house. Here
the prisoner gave a very good account of himself and told a very
plausible story about being tired and so wheeling the bicycle home
instead of riding it. The captain appeared to be convinced of the
truth of his story and told him to ride his bicycle home. The man
tried to mount the machine, and after three failures acknowledged that
he had stolen the machine."
Lots of other good stuff.