The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-15 00:00:00

5, 1870.

THE TROUBLES OF A DRESSMAKER.

The Superior Court of Boston has recently been en-
gaged in the trial of a cause (Flynt against Coolidge)
which has created much excitement in the dress-circles of
the Tri-montane region. Mrs. Flynt, the plaintiff, is the
most fashionable artistic, we may say aesthetic dress-
maker of all who clothe mid glorify the ladies of the Hub.
Mr. Coolidge, the defendant, is au eminent merchant.
Mrs. Coolidge is the spouse of Mr. Coolidge. She had
manufactured to her order, by Mrs. Flynt, raiment for
which that costumer charged 1,911 dols. The court, some
time since, sent the whole matter to an auditor, who re-
ported that the gowns furnished were worth 1,263 dols.
Mrs. Flynt declined to accept this report, and wo the
case was given to a jury. The ingenious plaintiff testi-
fied that there was no workwoman in Boston who
could make gowns equal in beauty and taste to her own.
Then she caused all her girls to be called, from her Miss
Knagg down (though we don't see any Miss Kate Nickleby
mentioned), and they unanimously deponed that the
prices of Mrs. Flynt were exceedingly moderate. Then
she called three dry-goods dealers, but they were shy, and
averred that many of the goods used in the dresses had no
market value—which we think extremely probable. Then
came the outraged husband, with a long lot of dress-
makers in his train, the said milliners not being in very
good temper by reason of Mrs. Flynt's boast that she was
the only person in Boston who knew how to make
a gown. It was perfectly natural for them to
whittle down the charges of the self-compla-
cent Flynt frightfully. One swore that the
work for which 1,086 dols, was charged was really worth
about 193 dols. ; another reckonad it at 248 dols. ; still
another at 236 dols. Then came a great many witnesses
from famous dry goods houses, and they, one and all,
united in swearing that the great Mrs. Flint had charged
from 40 to 70 per cent, too much for her brilliant and
beautiful silks, and laces, and satins. Then came Mrs.
Coolidge, wife of the defendant, for whose use and wear
the gowns were wonderfully and fearfully made; and she
testified that formerly Mrs. Flynt had been reasonable in
her charges, but that now, alas ! she had become most
mercilessly unreasonable. Then came the Injured
Husband, who deponed that when he went
to the plaintiff's house, in the desperate hope
off effecting a settlement, she had turned
him out of the door, exclaiming as he fled :
" You miserable sinner, you !" The lawyers argued the
case beautifully. The plaintiff's lawyer extolled in the
finest language her genius for dress-making. He' spoke
scornfully of the dress-makers called as experts by the
defendant. They were of a lower order. They " bore
no more comparison in point of ability -to the plaintiff
than a cobbler on North-street to the most expensive and
fashionable bootmaker in the city." Mrs. Flynt was "an
artist." He didn't say—we wonder that he missed the
point—that you might know that she was an artist by
her spelling her name with a "y." The defendant's
lawyer began by observing that "most of the jurors
were married men "—if they were not, the dis-
closures in this case might prevent them from
ever becoming so. He declared that from *all the
dressmakers in Boston—all save the flinty Flynt—one
consentaneous cry had gone up to Heaven, and that cry
was "Extortion !" He reminded the jurors that if they
allowed Mrs. Flynt thus to raise the general prices of
dress manufacture, they would have then to pay for all
the fine robes ordered by the Mrs. Jurors. Then, after
being lucidly charged, the jury went to their den, and
stayed their pondering and debating, and discussing and
estimating, for twenty-four hours. Unfortunately nothing
came of it. If Mrs. Flynt's bill had been for breeches or
boots, or for waistcoats or hats, the jurors might have
jumped at a verdict with the alacrity of grasshoppers :
but so many mysterious vanities for ladies did
dreadfully bother the poor men—an excellent argument
by the way, dear Miss Anthony, for women jurors ! The
more the twelve men considered this business the farther
were they from agreement. Strange to say, a majority of
them favoured Mrs. Flynt. But the obstinate ones took
strong ground, and maintained it. If we ever hear of any
settlement of this momentous dispute, we shall not fail to
inform the husbands of New York of the adjustment for
they too, we fancy, suffer like unto their Boston brothers
in bonds, and often pay their wives' bills with the agon-
ising reflection (as they draw cheques which may make
monstrous holes in their bank-account) that there has been
a mastadonian swindle somewhere. If but a few ofthem will
imitate the morally courageous example of Mr. Coolidge,
and valiantly confront the Flynts, persuading the wives of
their bosoms, at the same time, not to make heavy in-
vestments in clothes clandestinely, we are sure that
domestic harmony will thereby be greatly promoted. The
Bostonian husband has evidently determined to be no
longer a victim. Beside the defendant in the case above
referred to, Mrs. Flynt is engaged in litigation with " a
leading merchant in State-street," who also declines to
settle his wife's by no means little account. The moral
influence of courage like this can hardly fail in elevating
many lowly and down-trodden husbands to the rank of
freedmen.—New York Tribune.