The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1866-01-23
PROPER DIAMETER OF cRINoL1NE
Interesting to The Ladies'

PROPER DIAMETER OF CRINOLINE
Interesting to the Ladies.
We intend not merely to defend the ladies,
but to keep them informed of every effort,
Judielal or otherwis' to contract their rights or
hoops. With this resolve ever present, we now
remind them that vilaiRaHs jurists in Europe
have begun to lord it over their English sisters
and no question exists that all the lawyers in
North Carolina will try to put their fingers in
1t before another year rolls around. just read
the annexed and be prepared to make green
bags" come under:
1.-THE question of the proper diameter of a
lady's skirt has recently received an authorta-
tive decision--not a decision by the laws of
taste, nor in a court Of fashion. by which these
matters have been usually. determined, bu: a
regular Judicial determination in a court of law
in England. It seems that while lady was
passing along the street in London, her dress
caught upon nail projecting from packing
box which had been left on the sidewalk, and
the result was a hidcous rent, whereupou the
lady, 10 righteous indignation, made claim for
damages. The owner Of the packing box, either
conscious that he was in the wrong, or desrous
to save trouble, undertook to have the dress re-
paired, but the piece of silk which he had put
in did not match the rest closely enou"h 90 suit
the offended lady, whereupon her husband
brought suit against him for wrongfully ob-
structiny the public highway, whereby he had
suffered injury The unfortunate packing box
man undertook to defend himself from this
claim, by proving that the sidewalk was ten
feet wide and that the offending packing box
occupied only three feet on one side of it, leav-
ing the lady unobstructed passage seven feet
wide. He claimed that this was room enough,
and that it was negligence, therefore, on the
lady's part to run against the nail.
But the court held otherwise, and gave
judgment in the plaintiffs favor for all the in
jury which tie dress had sustained, with costs.
So that it may, We suppose, be understood hence
forth that a diameter of seven feet is within the
proper aud legal limits of lady. skirt.
There is class Of our ladies whose especial
attention We desire to call to this decision. We
mean that class who spread out their skirts
upon the seats of cars and omnibuses to the
tert of only FIVE or six feet They should
no longer allow themselves to be limited ia the
cruel way that they have been. Henceforth
advise them to spread out to the full extent Of
seven feet at least, unmindfu whether any un-
fortunates of the other sex suspending them
selves by the straps from the roof or not
Seven feet across is the legal limit, ladies'
"The law allows it and the court awards it,"
The policy of Charles Sumner and Thad Ste
vens, which the Radicals are all braying it is
treason to oppose, comes to 'his-that in the
States lately in rebellion the whites shall be dis
franchised and the blacks cntranchised that
these States shall not be admitted to the privi-
leges of the Union until their governing class is
black. This is the actual issue the crazy, hairy
headlong fanatics are trying to force upon the
country, and which they are not loudly but
deeply, cursiug the President for opposing, while
they are hypocritically fawnins upon him, and
vociferously protesting that it must be mpossi-
BILE that he can disagree with them, for they
the only ezponents Of the immaculate in politics,
and the authorized expouhders OF law and gos-
pei, vested with the exclusive prerogative of sep
arating the sheep from the goats in this world.
Now, it does not require more than ordinary sa-
gaci;y to see that the programme Of establishing
a humber of bi0ch States is not only absolutely
impracticabe, but an intolerable absurdity, and
that its adoption by any party, however fornlda-
Bile in numbers, organization, and position,
would speedily reduce it to the proportions of
fraction -Ctact"nott. Commercial
INFLUENCE OF THE MIND UPON THE BODY.
An experiment tried by an eminent physician
of St Petersburg, during the prevalence Of :he
cholera there several years ago, serves TO Illus
trate the influence of the mind upon the body.
He obtained of the authorities two criminals
who had been condemned to DEATH to do with
them as he saw fit. One of these convicts was
made to sleep in bed in which, as he was told,
man died with the cholera the night before
although Such was not the fact. After rest
less night, the criminal was taken with all the
symptoms Of cholera, and died of that disease,
declaring that he had caught it from that bed-a
victim to his own fears The other was made
to sleep on a bed wherein man had died few
hours previously of the fatal disease. This fact
however, was unknown to the occupant of the
bed, who arose in the morning refreshed from
his sleep, remaining in perfect health.
a CLASS THAT SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED.
1t affords US pleasure to record the fact that
there many freedmen in our midst who con-
duct themselves properly, and are doing all i"
their power to obtain an honest living for them
selves aud those who are dependent upon them.
This class should be encouraged to pursue the