The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-12-29
SEATTLE. THURSDAY. DEC. 80.
SENTIMENTAL vERDICTs.

city for breach of promise of marriage, has
been awarded $4,000 damages. The de-
PENDANT moved for new trial, but it will
probably do him no good. Clara Camp
bell, it will be remembered, several years
ago obtained verdict of S45 900 against a
rich coffee merchant "Baby Bunting" Ar
buckle, and this verdict stood the test of
an appeal.
The result of this trial is conspicuous
illustration of the fact that fairly good
looking woman, not absolutely of i'll re-
,ute, has always the best of a rich man
before an average jury. Women's rights
and women's wrongs are sure Of a sympa-
thetic hearing before jury, even if there
be two or three drunkards and wife-beat-
ers upon 1t, for nobody is so sentimental q
friend of a lone, lorn, prosecuted woman,
who retains more or less traces of for
mer beauty" as a comparatively worth
less man. The drunken, wife-beating,
Misunderstanding husband, the Sc
ducer, the faithless lover, the
brutal son and brother, always sobs or
swears the loudest in the theater when a
wronged woman is the heroine, and the
same man is the most sympathetic juror
when a woman sues for breach of promise
of marriage-showing that the distance
from cruelty, treachery and infdelIty to
sentimentalism is but short step. The
male or female Judas passes quickly from
blows to kisses, from savage oaths TO senti-
mental gush, from cold-blooded treachery
to generosity that is injustice, from sell
fishne.s at home to extravaganza magma
nimity abroad that is easy to assume and
utter. because it does not cost the fellow
who assumes virtue he does not possess
single cent. 1t is very easy to be philan-
thropic on a jury when damages are not
assessed on the jury. 1t is very pleasant
10 spend other peoples money, but it does
not imply very large commercial and busi-
mes, talent, and as a rule sentimental
had their dues. would be in the prison box
rather than on the jury seat.
Suppose this fortunate Miss Jacobs, in
stead of being young and attractive. had
been a faded and homely woman; suppose
she had had the same legal proofs of con-
tract in the shape of endearing CORE
spondence and incessant acts of aflectionate
devotion; suppose she had been a woman
OF 20 with an unattractive, angular, bony
figure; with dyed hair. false teeth and
deliberately enameied cheeks; suppose she
had been dyspeptic, capricious woman
Unfortunately fond of acloh olic drinks sup
pose che had been armed with an audi
phone and had sported a symmetrical cork
leg: suppose that Sire had been
blooming young man. who, knowing
all her intirmties, had nevertheless
courted her assduously aud pretended
q willingness to take her as 2 wife with
ali her disabilities ami dehilities of dead
or dying hair, her painted ocean Of
withered cheek, her dyspepsia, her tip
ping habits. her audiphone and corkouian
understanding-does anybody suppose for
a moment that under these reversed cir
cumstances of age and appearance the
New York jury would have given Miss
Jacobs anything more than mere nominal
damages2 Oh. no; they would have
laughed her out of court: the Jury would
have called her among themselves an old
pelican who must not be permitted to
swallow that handsome young gudgeon,
counsel for Sire would have denounced
her as a Gree. or a Siren or a Deliah
seeking IN her decrepltude to achieve by
her arts a conquest that her faded charms
could no longer fairly command. The
jury would have either failed 10 agree or
would have cast Mss Jacobs out OF court
into that outer darkness OF the cold,
cynical world, where defeated litigants
wall and gnash their teeth.
And yet If the present verdict Of young
Miss Jacobs for $500 against Sire is Just,
tho verdict that would throw Miss jacobs
out of court, If. armed with the same
proofs. she was an antique, ii not intirrn.
party 10 the suit, would be most unjust.
for faded If not feeble woman OF ~ who
loses n suit for breach of promise is more
deeply and hopelessly injured than a
buxom. blooming woman If -. since the
woman Of 81 is yet quotabie among popu-
lar and salabIe stock III the market. while
the faded if not feeble woman IF 10 would
he interesting and salah.e only to- those
exceptional persons who buy books that
cannot be given away. collect postage
stamps that have been Cancelled. aud &c.
cumulste other nondescrjpt curios ana
antiquities for which there is no market
save among the eccentric Who are FIRST
cousins f. the insane.
The conclusion is that the verdicts Of
iuries are often sentimental rather than
fast: that Miss jacobs may thank the TACT
that she Was not faded. or dyspspt.c. o!
fat and forty without being fair for her
extraordinary verdict: we say extraor-
binary verdict. for II she had lost her leg
in - railroad accident she would hardly
have recovered more damages than che
has been aw arded for the loss Of he's heart,
q loss that Is not real, but is a legal fiction.
The plain moral ~ that the average jury.
when appealed to by handsome young
woman. does not consider that rich man
has any rights that white man Is bouad
70 respect Alss Jacobs hAs only 10 ses heg