THE CRINOLINE CASE. (61 N. Y. 621.) BY FRANCIS DANA.
REAT Justice, Goddess of the Sword and Scales! And thou, О Themis of disputive tongue, Supplant the Muse, who lamentably fails To sing this matter as it should be sung, Take up her lyre, and bid her hold her jaw, And hear you talk, — for what knows she of Law?
In 61 N. Y. 621, (Paulin against Broadway and Seventh Avenue Company], after his last fight was done, The counsel for the Railroad moved to have a new Trial, because the Court had had the gall to Charge in a way he thought there was no call to.
It was a case that cast into the shade All past proceedings, — civil, yea, and criminal: On one side angry Beauty stood arrayed (In hoop-skirts) warring for the right of women all To dress as suits 'em, — warring very properly Against the tyranny of a brute monopoly.
Dame Fashion had that year decreed a fat form For ladies, and that hoop-skirts must prevail : Thus clad, the Plaintiff from a horse-car platform Alighted, heedless of Defendant's nail, Which, peeping forth, its rusty head entangled In the wide hoop that round her person dangled.
