Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1881-07-02
MORE THAN A QUESTION OF ETH
QUETTE.

Judge Ryland has made two new
rules in his court. One is, that no news
papers shall be read there; and the
| other that every nan who attends court
must wear q coat. The first rule Is not
a bad one, as the rafting of newspapers
is often made a nuisance, and the ad-
vent of the newsboy where newspaper
reading is allowed Invariably attracts
more attention for a while than can the
Judge. A court room is not a public
reading room. The second rule we
think arbitrary, unjust and unnecessary,
and we hope it will be repealed.
In thirteen years of married life we
do not remember once to have sat down
to the table at a regular meal with our
wife, without a coat. We have done this,
| often at Inconvenience, because we have
thought that no woman was more enti-
tied to our respect than she, and we
chose this as one mark of respect for
her. 1t Is some such idea, no doubt.
which actuated the judge in requiring
all persons entering his court to year
coats. But we submit that the court is
neither a gentlemsn's dining table nor a
drawing room. 1t is a workshop,
where the thunderbolts of justice are
forged. and in hot weather laborers at
this forge will sweat, even If their coats
are removed; with them on they will
melt. Beside, the court is not for any
one class OF people-it is for all classes,
and there are many very worthy men
who practically own no coats in the
summer. They have no money to throw
away, and-when they buy a coat it is to
protect them from the inclemencies OF
cold or wet, when it is warm they 60 in
their shirt sleeves. No doubt the judge
would say, "Oh, ii a man has no coat he
will not be required to wear one; - but
We suggest that it will be %inconvenient
every time q man comes into the court
house coatless to institute a committee
of inquiry into the condition OF his
wardrobe.
There was once a very learned and
patriotic man whose hatred for anything
savoring of prerogative was so great
that he desired to abolish all titles, sven
the PLAIN n OF mister. The spirit of
this desire was born in q love for pure
and simple democracy, where at the
bench or at the bar, at the school or at
the ballot box, the poor man could
be made to feel himself the peer of the
richest and best Clad. 1t may seem
but a little thing to require a man to
wear a garment which is neither de-
manded for comfort or for decency
when he comes into his own temple,
the courthouse, but If he is to be asked
whether or not he has q coat at home,
and made to ieel that he is someway not
fit to be there, it is a very serious thing. /
We know that ladies sometimes go
into the courtroom; 8 % they do into other
workshops. and we have yet to hear OF
the most fastidious one that has ever
entered a complaint that the foreman or
his operatives have lacked in respect be-
cause they did not at once draw on their
coats. We have often, in this county |
and elsewhere, seen men who we're
to be in their shirtsleeves
attend the worship of Almighty God SO,
and no n present would have presumed
to ascrlbe to them levity or irreverence.
We yield to no ono in the wish to see
The dignity of u courts maintained.
We believe that the strictest order and
should be observed therein.
No mark of respect to the court or its
officers should be lacking. All this can
be accomplished without stationing a
sheriff at the door like a lackey to
men who come there coatless to
,lothe themselves differently from what
hey are accustomed. We respectfully
to the Judge that the garb which
is good enough for an honest man to
appear in on the street. is good enough
Tor him to wear in court.
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