Kansas City daily journal., 1897-01-25
A Kansas Daniel Come to Judgment

From the Chicago Tribune.
The male population of Atchison, Kas
| is plunged again in gloom. For a few days
| it reveled in the passage of an anti-high
| theater hat ordinance. But the mayor, B.
| p Waggoner, has interposed n veto and
| given the high hat the support of his vast
| legal learning.
In treating such a lofty subject it was
| perhaps natural for this erudite official ito
| take high constitutional grounds" and ac-
! cordingly he bases his disapproval of the
| measure on that section of the constitution
| which says:
No state shall make or enforce any law
which shall abridge the privileges or i'm
| munities of citizens of the United States
nor deny to any person within its jurisdic-
| tion the equal protection of the laws.
This is a very effective section of the
constitution concerning privileges or inn
munities of citizens" but it doesn't seem
| to have any particular bearing on the sub
| ject under discussion. which is not a priv
| ilege or an immunity, but merely q nuis-
ance. 1t has been accepted as a sound
proposition that no one has a legal right
to commit nuisance, and there is no point
in any known constitutions, except the
constitutions of some women, where nui-
sances are included under the head of le-
galized privileges.
If a man should keep a high hat on his
head in a theater the women would sum-
mon the ushers, the managers. and the po-
lice and insist that the hat be removed,
and the fact that he had committed nui-
sance would not be questioned by any
body. If he persisted in his misbehavior
he would be elected or arrested and fined
and the entire community would applaud
either action as legal and justifiable vim
dication of public rights and law and or
der.
1t is n fact that certain indulgence has
been granted the fair sex in this matter
of wearing hats in the theater. 1t began
when hats were comparatively small and
when the nuisance was so slight that 1t
was tolerated by the men and indulged
in by the women in the belief that no ones
convenience or rights were being jeopar-
died. The theater hats have reached such
vast proportions now, however. that the
nuisance has become unbearable. Nearly
all considerate women have promptly
yielded to the protest and remove their
hats in n theater voluntarily just as they
would do any other act of obvious courte-
sy. A few, however have persisted in their
i'll bred practice of piling on their heads
mounds of millinery that completely shut
off the view of the stage from people sit
ting behind them. They have refused to
heed requests, appeifS' protests or reason
able demands. They insist on making a
nuisance of themselves with their hats.
They make worthless the seats Immediate
ly behind them in theater, and there is
no way in which a patron can know in
advance that it may not De his misfortune
TO have one of those seats. They have not
the slightest right to ''abridge the privi-
leges or immunities of citizens of the
United States or Kansas who sit behind
them, when the same citizens would not
be granted a similar right to wear high
hats and reciprocate the discourtesy.
This mayor of Atchison should not mix
up his sentiment with law. He may have a
special reason for sympathizing with the
women who are guilty of this objectionable
discourtesy, but he should not force the
admirable laws of the land to shoulder the
responsibility. There is nothing in law to