Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-03-11

Boston has an anti-theater hat or
dinance, and the managers have had
but little trouble in enforcing 1t. II a
woman refuses TO remove her hat when
requested to do so by patron of the
theater. the manager. complaint hav-
Ing been made to him. sends an usher
to the hat-wearer with n card on which
the ordinance IL printed. AZ n general
thing, she capltulates. In some In
stances women, rather than remove
their hats, have left the theater In high
dudgeon calling on the way out at the
box office for the price of their tickets.
But at matt the other afternoon Il
manager had to deal with n woman
who defied him and all his satellites,
and distracted attention from the stage
for a full hour and n half She might
have repealed the ordinance then and
there and earned the everlasting rev
crence OF all strong-minded women,
but at the critical moment the weakness
of her sex asserted itself and she fell
from her pinnacle of defiance.
The woman Wore an Eiffel tower of n
hat and sat in front of two other
women who could see nothing of the
stage. They were bound to get their
why, and appealed to an usher to en-
force the law He handed the woman
the usual card. she read It slowly.
compressed her lips and shook her head.
The head usher came and reasoned with
her. but she was firm as Plymouth
Rock He made several trips to her
chair and expostulated almost tearfully,
but she agltnted the offending fabric
vigorously and In the intervals gave
her attention to the play. Finally, he
warned her that he would have to call
In the police. and she told him sweetly
that that would make no difference,
The policeman came. bedlght in blue
and gold. and she transfixed him with
n scornful stare. Very politely he told
left the thcater he would have to use
force. She was unmoved and still de-
faint. Then he began to clear the
decks for action, Persons occupying
aisle seats near by were asked TO leave
them before hostllitles opened. II was
then that the woman In the big hat
collapsed, wept and retired. At the box
office she got her money back and gave
the ticket-sellor piece OF her mind,
We should like to be able TO hail ms n
heroine this Boston woman who re-
VOTED. She might have won immor-
tally with Thoreau. who rather than
pay his poll tax went to 1ail Indeed,
she might have ecllpsed him entirely,
for, geniuslilSe, Thoreau let a friend
pay the tax for him. and returned to
his hermitage, while the woman who
rchcllcd against the hat ordinance
would have damned II forever by re-
slstlng eviction. The spectacle OF a
woman dragged and hauled and yanked
out OF n theatcr by uniformed officer
OF the law for not taking on her hat
would have been too much for Boston.
which, for all its respect for authority
is apt, when really stirred up, to tnkc
sides with the rebel and roar virtues sly
over outrage An anti-thenter hat or
dinance Is q silly piece OF legislation,
worthy only OF a Chicago alderman.
Boston completely lost It's reputation
Tor common sense when the city fathers
put such n prohibition on the statute
book, Whore good manners rule, there
Is no difficulty about porsuadiug women
20 sit In theaters without their hats,
or at least with very low ones which
49, mere apologies for hcadgear. The
Boston woman Is not 10 he com
mended for being disagreenble to her
sisters who could not see the play. hut
II II was principle that made her a
rebel she should have been rebel
TO the end, and great would have
been her glory.