Judge — May 31, 1919 — page 15: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

EDITOR PRIVAT nt Reuwen P. Sterner, Seer , J. AU Watpros, £ Joun A. Steicner, Pre Pereiron Maxweut, Ed TATISTICS and vital averages and totals are a passion with Ameri- trivial— percentages, cans. Baseball, foreign and domestic commerce, ku births, marriages and deaths are only a few of the subjects of which careful and accurate record is kept and printed, with appropriate comment and comparison, from time to time. The causes of striking variations in the figures also are noted and sualyeed with meticulous care and impressive solemnity. In that respect the influence of women’s fashions on court records would make an interesting study. In bygone days fair defendants at times resorted to smiles, tears, sighs, sobs and shivers in the effort to affect a jury, but the physical revelations made possible by coutouriers of today make a more potent, if less direct, appeal. One can imagine a district attorn in compiling the records of his tenure of office making liberal use of footnotes in explaining the vagaries of the figures show- ing the ratio of convictions to trials of women. The following probably would be typical: *In 1914 slashed skirts were fashionable. figts was peek-a-boo waist year. tIn 1916 flaring skirts were the vogue. §In 1917 lacework hosiery was the rage. In 1918 short skirts were the fashion. #In 1919 tight skirts came in. An old-timer’s comment most likely would be that human nature, nevertheless, was always the same. It is always the same. And nowadays one sees so much more of it! And the smiles, tears, sobs, shivers and other devices of the fair on trial are all the more effective when aided by the revealing modes employed by women to the limit before jurie There are interesting possibili- ties for the courts when women on trial may be confronted by district attorneys and aids as well as juries of their sex. Drown by “Our? Crosny FOR 1s A Rottaver, Treasurer Grant E. Hastcros, drt Director Editor Lawton Mackaut, Managing Edit A Rent-Day Dream A Goop Time HE landlord and tenant excitement which is gen- eral throughout the country, although its more sensational developments have been in New York, is one of the results of the war. Urban populations have grown, as usual, while building has stagnated. Some European cities perhaps present an analogous situation, though in Europe growth is slower. But there are conditions in London that are so unusual, from the viewpoint of a younger city, that they seem incredible. The world has been turned topsy-turvy by the war, yet certain rentals, survivals from feudal days, are siill in force in England’s capital. For certain property off the Strand the City of London receives annually “two knives, six horseshoes, and sixty-one nails”; the Royal Academy pays peppercorn” rent for the site of Burlington House; the owner of Copeland Manor holds tenancy on condition that he supports the king’s head should the sovereign be seasick while crossing the Chan- nel; a private school near Tower Bridge pays an annual rental of a bunch of roses, the modern value being $25,000. These are but a few of the ancient customs still in force in London as to the obligations of tenants and the privileges and emoluments of landlords, and they represent the conservatism of a people who have had something of habit shaken by the war. Such insignificant returns for land were originally of a period when it was cheap, while money was a rare medium of payment and ex- change because it was scarce. Even as late as Shakespeare’s time a sheep could be bought for a shil- ling, because sheep were more numerous than coins of that de- nomination. There is no food for comfort in this to the person in New York or any other modern city seeking an apartment, but it ought to ex- cite wonder or provoke a smile. comicbooks.com