The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-02-22
LOVE, LAW AND POETRY.
A CURIOUS BREACH OF PROMISE
CASE PLEADING.
The Fair Plaintiffs Complaint and
the Defendants Answer Made in
Verse-A Uniuue Shit,

The Fair Plaintiffs Complaint and
the Defendants Answer Made in
Verse-A Unique Suit.
A courtship has not unfrequently pro-
voked the interested parties to poetry,
but the only case in which the rhyming
was kept up aftera suit had been entered
for breach of promise has been brought
to light in Brooklyn. The suit owed its
celebrity to the fact that all the pleadings
were written in provoking rhyme.
This novel proceeding was probably with
out recorded precedent in the history of
American jurisprudence, and was sgiven
the widest publicity in the papers through
out the country at the time the suit was
instituted.
The story was regarded by many as a
mere newspaper fiction. Lawyers diff
fercd in their opinions as to the legality
of pleadings so unique in style and as to
whether a suit could be legally insti-
tuted in such a manner. Some thought
that no court would entertain case
brought before it on pleadings of so ex-
traordinary and frivolous a character;
while others contended that the complaint
and answer were strictly legal, the plain
tiff having set forth every fact required
by law to be alleged.
The following unique declaration was
filed in the case:
City Court of Brooklyn.
Arabella Parhenia Feathcrstone
against
j. Urah Allibone
The plaintiff, in seeking redress for her woes,
Comes into court and respectfully shows:
That she now resides, ali! more is the pity,
In Ten Eyck street, all alone i'll this city.
The defendant, too. is re 'iding here
But not alone, as will later appear.
That in 1879
The plaintiff said. Parthenia,
Resided with her relatives
In the State of Pennsylvania
A single woman she had lived
Since birth-iust thirty years
With heart untouched by Cupid's dart
And checks unwet by tears,
Until the said Uriah came
Twas first of last July
10 fish for trout, and perch and Dream.
With tackle, hook AMI fly,
lie wandered up AMI down the stream
Tha dubbed DER the stones
Saw me one day, bowed low and sa i'd
"My name is Allibone.n
From then he never fshe1 again
At least har lily ever
Unless he had me by his side,
His darling Araballa.
He told to Inc the old, old tale;
How new it was to me
Declared | was his own true love,
Himself from wedlocli free
Oh oh, the happy days we spent
A-wandering by the stream:
But now. alas they are no more,
And all seems but dream.
One day-Julv the twenty first
With wandering steps and slow,
He anne and asked Inc ''Be my bride,
And share my JOY and Woe
And |, with trembling lips. announced
Ny life was his for aye
And fixed November twenty-third
To be the wedding day;
And all my hopes We're soaring high
As dark Novembers means
II, claimed the days were drawing nigh
When I'd he Allibone's.
I've learned too late that men betray-
No soothing art can cure
The soul-fe wounl tina Cupid left
Where once my heart was pure.
Confidng in his promises
| waited patiently.
Until November came around
An h should call for me-
But ere November came around,
The defendant Inc forgetting,
W 90 ID and won CITY maid,
And had city wedding.
And now forsaken and forlorn,
The victim of loves ravages-
Mocked at home and ieered abroad
| ask the court for damages.
Bv way of satisfaction.
The plaintiff asks the court to give
10 carry on the action.
Ten Thousand dollars is the SIM
Though it would not reauite me-