Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1885-07-09
SumptuaFy Laws.

Sumptuary laws-the meaning of
which is measures to prevent extrava-
gance-a plank in the Democratic Ma
tional Platform that is offensive to op-
pOnents of the party, originated i'm the
time of Zaleucus, a LOcrian legislator,
$50 years before the Christian Era. He
considered it a waste of money for a
rich woman to appear in the streets
with more than one servant unless she
were drunk, and if she robed herself in
embroidered apparel, she was consid-
cred impure. Two hundred years later
the Roman cens0rs, who had charge OF
public morals, punished with an official
reprimand persons guilty of luxurious
living, and limited the number quests
at public feast. No feast was allowed
to cost more than the value of one hun
dred mules and picnic grades were
quoted from ten mules to one hen. In
the time of Edward the Third, who was
King of Great Britain from 1850 to 1872,
sumptuary laws were in high favor, and
many of them were in force until 1925.
A statute enacted under King Edward
relates that
Through the excessive and over-many
costly meats which the people of this
realm have used more than elsewhere,
many mischiefs have happened; for the
great men, by these eXcesses, have been
sore grieved, and the lesser people, who
only endeavored to initiate the great
ones in such sorts of meat, are much
impoverished, whereby they are not
able to help themselves, nor their liege
lord, in time of need, as they ought, and
many other evils have happened as well
to their souls as their bodies"
1t will be seen that King Edward was
no Democrat. Had he lived under the
present constitution of the United
States, he probably would have been a
Prohibitionist of solids as well as of
liquids. AS the pursuit of happiness is
an inherent right of every American,
and as the digestive organs are favored
route of said pursuit, the estopped of
the produce of the shambles, the corn
and barley fields, would have made the
pursuit mere goose chase. The King,
however, was only temperance man,
and he ordered that no wealthy citizen
should be allowed more that two pieces
of meat for dinner or supper, or more
than two kinds of food in any course,
except at festivals, when three courses
were legal. He would not allow any
person not worth $500 to were furs,
skins of any kind, or silk. He thought
it outrageous for one to 60 in debt for
his clothes, and in proclamation, which
ascribed the impoverishment of the
land to extravaganza in dress, he laid
down the quality of material and the
style it should be cut for the common
people. The people considered this a
step too far in the sumptuary line, and
by much agitation succeeded in year
in having the law repealed. The Scot
tish Parliament, under Charles the
First, in the sixteenth centuary, enacted
law to regulate the dress of the ladies,
in order to save the "puir gentlemen,
their husbands and fathers" 1t was
also declared unconstitutional for the
ladies to 60 to church wearing veil.
1t is matter of record that nearly all
these laws were dogged. The Kings of
France and England who caused their
enactment did more than their success
sors to display their love for pageantry
and taste for the luxurious. 1t is from
these forms, however, that the theory
of sumptuary laws of this country has
been d,-Sidneu Democrat.