The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-10-25
A TALE OF MODERN LIFE.
From, the N. Y. Times.


From the N. Y. Times.
The celebrated cause of ''Flynt VS.. Cool
idge" will doubtless be long remembered in
Boston. 1t engaged the attention of Judges
and iuries, on and off, for nearly fourteen
months. Some very fine exhibitions of foren-
sic eloquence we're elicitedfin the course of
the trials The plaintiff is none of your
common dress-makers She is person of a
"high grade, as her counsel informed the
Court-''one of those who do not work for
the crowd. People who employed this
ilustrious female we're obliged TO present
themselves humbly before her with a certif-
cate of ''gentility" in their hands. 1t is said
Of a certain English tailor that he will never
make clothes for man unless he is properly
introduced by member of the peerage. The
incompatible Mrs. Flynt borrowed a quill
from this worthy tailor's goose. Moreover,
she provided elegant apartments for her Gus
toners, where they ran no risk of meeting
other customers. 1t was strictly private
establishment. All this is very in
teresting. There are few people who viii
not turn aside now and then from the graver
cares of life to be instructed in the art, or
science, or whatever the thing is to be called,
by which the fair sex are enabled to make SO
striking figure in the world. But the op-
portunity very seldom comes. We only see
the vast and admirable result, and are left
to guess by what agencies it is accomplished
"Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell? p
asks poor king Lear" How much less can
we explain how a fashionable lady prepares
her gorgeous raiment. But Mrs. Flynt has
drawn aside the curtain. Perhaps some of
the romance is gone, but we have at least in
creased our stock of information. 1t is like
the case of young lady who has all sorts of
sentimental fancies about the moon, until
one day she learns that the object which looks
so interesting is melan choly chaotic mass
of extinct volcanoes, without light, atmo-
sphere, or anything else which can be called
its own.
Mrs. Flynt, whose name we mention with
the deepest awe, had exercised her un-
equalled skill for the benefit of lady of Bos-
ton, whom it is sufficient to describe as the
defendant. We cannot pretend to give a
full account of the great creatures bill. The
document is rather technical, and the
evidence taken at the trial did not go far to
elucidate it. 1t consisted largely of testi-
mony concerning basting and pinking, and
scollops, seersucker, hermann, and other mys-
teries which only the initiated can explain.
But one feature in the account at once ar
rests attention-it is that probably which
struck the husband of the defendant with
CONSERVATION. The heavy charges were not
for making the dresses, or even for the ma
terial thereof, but for trimmings" In fact,
a lady seems made of trimmings. In this
case they cost from three to four times as
much as the dress. This is quite accord
ing to the principles of modern art, but
perhaps Mrs. Flynt rather overdid it. Her
bill was nearly all trimmings" intoler-
able deal of sack to a very little bread.
Every body could not afford that style, the
counsel explained to the jury Perhaps most
husbands would rather not afford it, if they
had any voice in the matter. But foremost
among the inalienable rights of woman is the
right to choose her own trimmings. She
appears to care more for that than about good
government, or honest judges, or any silly
questions of that kind. Mrs. Flynt managed
to run her bill up to close upon $4,000 on the
strength of these ornaments. We do not see
much else in her account except some 'pads,
shot, and bones, which are probably not
very expensive. Shot and bones are plentiful
enough IN these days, though how many
pounds of each go to form fashionable lady,
Mrs. Flynt that pink of elegance, has not
told us.
The husband, as we said, objected to this
bill-husbands always are stupid and unrea-
sonable on these sub jects, being born abso-
lutely without the capacity to comprehend
the great question of trimmings. So great
many witnesses were called to prove that Mrs.
Flynt had overcharged. But the defendants
counsel bitterly denounced them as ''cob-
blers" and 'attic stitchers," and we can
uiiS up AOi ohAoVOOidelS
nose at the whole set. When the husband
called upon her to see if she would notreduce
the amount of her BILL she flung him from
her presence with all the contempt becoming
a dress-maker of ''high-grade, and called him
'miserable sinner"-and so no doubt he was,
very miserable. AS it is always pleasant to
record the triumph of virtue, we are glad to
say that Mrs. Flynt won her action. But the
| Jury Topped off rather more than $500 from
her bill, which we are afraid may have caused
some distress to woman of her tender sus-
capabilities. However, there are other ladies
who require basting and pinking, bones,
shot, and scollops, and they will doubtless
rush to Mrs. Flynt to get these indispensable
adiuncts to beauty. Such is the story. Some
may say that there is not much in it-but in
days when ladies think it matter of no mo-
ment that great and intelligent community
should be deprived of all its liberties by a
gang of political adventurers, when they can
look with complacency on the degradation of
social life, and think it troublesome to have
their attention called to the fact that their
husbands are robbed, their sons demoralized,
their daughters insulted, by the gang which
rules in New York-in such days, we say,
perhaps the exciting narrative we have laid
before them may be found quite to their
taste.