KinSource - Tale of the Week

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The St. Paul Daily Globe, October 1, 1895, p. 4

BLOOMERS NO BAR

IMPORTANT VERDICT OF FAR-REACHING SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC INTEREST.

EUREKA LODGE 9, A. O. U. W.

DECIDE THE BREACH OF PROMISE CASE OF SCANLAN VS. MAYER.

DAMAGES FOR THE PLAINTIFF,

Despite the Fact That She Wears Bloomers Upon Her Wheel.

A verdict of peculiar importance, a verdict tending to happily demoralize the social fabric, and to encourage all those sweet and tender feminine vices which most appeal to the masculine heart, was that rendered last night in the case of Miss Pearlie Scanlan vs. David Mayer. The action was for breach of promise and damages were placed at $5,000. All parties to the action are members of Eureka Lodge No. 9, A. O. U. W. The court therefore convened, with due solemnity and disorder, at Central hall, corner of Seventh and Sixth streets. With the utmost exertions of Sheriff O. H. Arosin, who wielded his horse pistol to advantage, the court room could not be made to contain the crowd seeking admittance. Macauley's description of the great trial of Warren Hastingswas brought to mind in the presence of the full bench of dignified judges, the clerk in his wig and short clothes, the panoplied sheriff, and the prepernaturally learned bar. Three notable jurists had consented to try this momentous action - W. H. Lightner, Joseph Ehrmanntraut and J. J. McCardy. The clerk was W. R. Johnson; attorneys for the plaintiff, Oscar Hallam and S. C. Olmstead; attorney for the defendant, Judge Schoonmaker. A murmur of sympathy, sternly repressed by the sheriff, arose at the entrance of the plaintiff, and, indeed, Miss Pearlie's delicate girlish loveliness would appeal strongly to a stranger even if ignorant of her wrongs. The plaintiff's mother, Mrs. Scanlan (S. W. Shepard) afforded a pleasing contrast to her daughter. If the latter's beauty had not yet budded, the former's charms were long overripe.

A jury was secured with rather less than the usual delay, although one man was preemptorily challenged because he could talk English; another because he had read the financial editorials in the Pioneer Press and was therefore mentally unsound, and a third because he did not know he nature of the verdict that had been arranged for. When the jury had been sworn to the effect that all evidence presented on a cash basis would receive their partial attention, and they would divide all emoluments with the judges and officers of the court, Attorney Olmstead drew their attention to the necessity of a verdict in favor of the plaintiff. She needed the money, and so did the plaintiff's counsel.

Miss Scanlan was the first witness called to the stand. Amidst sobs, she related how she had been introduced to the defendant by her pastor, Rev. Jonas Screechum (H. W. Brackett) at the steamboat ball at the Metropolitan opera house. The defendant had made violent love to her, although she is now only sixteen years old; she had at last consented to marry him. Yet he had ceased his attentions simply because he had learned of her father's financial straits.

Q. (By defense.) Are you the girl arrested in Minneapolis for wearing bloomers?

A. No sir.

Q. Were you ever called "Trixy?"

A. No, sir - not lately.

Mrs. Scanlan stated that she had been married sixteen years, and that her daughter was sixteen years old. (Sensation.) She corroborated her daughter's testimony, and added that her own grief had so impaired her health that she was now wearing a No. 9 instead of a No. 10 shoe.

Mr. Scanlan, the plaintiff's father (Thomas Lee), despite of his red whiskers and one black eye, created a most favorable impression. His testimony supported that of his wife, and was clear and contradictory.

Officer O'Dowd McSweeney (John Noonan) had seen the defendant and plaintiff together in the back yard of the Scanlan mansion at Third and Congress streets. They seemed to be in love. His beat was in the vicinity, and he was often required to call after dark, upon the Scanlan family, which usually consisted at such times of the hired girl.

Q. "Can you read and write?" A. "Some times, sorr?"

Q. "Are you the officer that [arrested] Abbie Thompson?" A. "No, sorr, I am not that."

This testimony was objected to by Attorney Olmstead on the ground that, if admitted, it would spoil his case. Objection overruled.

Rev. Mr. Screechum, a mild-appearing clergyman, stated that he came from Hudson; that he had married the defendant to two women in the past year; that he did not know of the latter's having obtained a divorce; and that he had arranged to marry the defendant to Miss Scanlan. His congregation was now meeting at Ald. Kartak's house, but they would meet hereafter in the Murphy annex on St. Peter street.

Unimportant testimony followed from the Scanlan family coachman, George Washington Abraham Lincoln Clay (Thomas Jones). The clerk of the court testified that Scanlan had refused to pay $1 for a marriage license which named Miss Scanlan as the bride-elect.

Much stress was laid on the statement of the next witness, Dr. Podophyllin Pillum (Dr. Dunning), who asserted that the plaintiff was suffering from a compound, cominuted fracture of the heart, the organ having evidently been fractured by certain delicate proceedings between the parties to the suit, such, for instance, as a kiss. The fact was perfectly clear to an educated physician like himself, but he could not explain it to a layman.

Begnning with that of Miss Katrina Googenheimer (Aug. Pabst) the testimony now tuned against the plaintiff. Miss Googenheimer had been a maid in the Scanlan family. She related how Miss Pearlie had taken to riding a bicycle, and for some months had done little else.

Q. "What was Miss Pearlie's costume?" A. "Ich kann nicht versteh."

Q. "What did she wear?" A. "O, ja, she have got preeches on."

Q. "Bloomers, you mean?" A. "Nein. I mean preeches."

The witness identified the bloomers, which were ordered marked "exhibit A" and were given over to the inspection of the jury. A shirt waist, a leather belt, a pair of leather leggins and a large safety pin were also admitted as evidence and identified as part of Miss Pearlie's costume. Judge Schoonmaker then stated that he would prove that his client, Mr. Meyer, was the victim of the wiles of a designing woman thirty-six years old instead of sixteen, a woman who had become a victim of the demoralizing habit of wearing bloomers upon a bicycle. When his client had learned this fact he had very properly refused to marry her. Judge Schoonmaker then called to the stand Mayor mason, of Minneapolis (George F. Woolsey), who swore that he had received the plaintiff in his office, whither she had been taken under arrest for wearing an unseemly costume in the street, and that she had endeavored to soften his heart by presenting him a picture of herself upon her wheel. The picture was produced, marked "Exhibit E," and also handed to the deeply interested jury.

Letters were here read by the defense which had been received from the plaintiff by Mr. Meyer. The writer insisted that she, her bloomers and her bicycle were one and inseparable, and that he must marry all three or none at all.

Hon. Michael Muldoon, M. P. (Pat Fortune), while traveling in this country, related that he had met the plaintiff on her wheel in Minneapolis and that she had tried to flirt with him. He also identified the bloomers.

After Rev. Mr. Screechum had been called in rebuttal by the plaintiff and testified that, to his personal knowledge, there was no such town as Minneapolis, the case was briefly submitted.

An excellent charge to the jury was delivered by Judge McCardy. It discovered marvelous ignorance of the law. The verdict was rendered with unusual celerity. It found the defendant guilty, but recommended him to the severity of the court, and, on motion of the defense, a stay of sentence was granted for forty-five years.