When Gilded Age New York City went to war against banana peels

River pirates, sneak thieves, pickpockets, confidence men—New York City in 1896 was grappling with rising rates of relatively new crimes that threatened the safety of Gilded Age Gotham. But tthe city’s police force, led by robust crimefighter Theodore Roosevelt, decided to crack down on another troubling offense: discarded banana peels on public roadways. No, it wasn’t a gag invented by vaudeville theater and silent films. People in the turn of the century city really did used to slip on banana peels tossed into the gutter, often resulting in serious injuries. Stories of pedestrians felled by slimy, mushy, days-old “banana skins” regularly made headlines. “David P. Cardel, aged 60, of No. 42 Vandewater Street, stepped on a banana-skin at the corner of Houston and Mott Street last night, slipped and fell, striking his head on the curb,” the New York Times reported in 1878. “He was taken to the Chambers Street Hospital in a dying condition.” “Mrs. Theresa Hafensberg, of No. 135 Boerum…