Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1926-06-30
Courts Taking
Tolerant Stand
On Modern Practices

| New York, June 29-(P)-The ex-
tent to which the invading manners
| and customs of a new generation
have been accepted as part of the
! modern scene has been strikingly re-
! Elected, in New York at least, in
that traditional last resort of con-
servatism--the Court.
Many of the new practices-the
public petting party, the cocktail
party, the nude art" dance and it's
older and somewhat out-dated sister,
the ''hootchie- kootchie," have won
tolera ton. in judicial decisions.
One magistrate summed 1t up in a
dictum that years ago such conduct
might have been wrong" but now
the people want 1t.
Max d. Steuer, one of the leading
members of the New York bar in a
divorce suit said:
1.-THE lounge lizard" has become
welcome consort of wives of tired
business men," and conduct which a
few years ago would have branded
a married woman as a social outcast
is new accepted as conventional.
"Women's rights have grown his
brief stated, land their political fran
chise Is only a part Of their privi-
| leges and prerogatives. Cocktail
PAL Ties dIG given dlllOSI ~udly III So
cial circles like those in which both
plaintiff and defendant lived. So
called petting parties are no longer
a badge of meretriciousness or cause
for social ostracism."
Justice Ford heard testimony that
the woman defendant in this case
and a correspondent, had been break
fasting together in negligee and kiss
ing, and that she spoke of cocktail
parties she had attended.
The justice, who has taken an ac-
tive part in campaigning against in
decent literature declared:
MANY things the girls and young
women do nowadays are so easily
misconstrued. especially by Use old
fellows, and yet they are perfectly
harmless.
"As for cocktail parties" he ad-
ded, why even my daughter tells mo
about them"
Once upon a time Broadway whis-
pered about a theatrical production
which had introduced choris in
tights. The other day a New York
magistrate ruled that. in a certain cur
rent production in which young wom-
an appeared in raiment 80 scant and
frail as in law to be ignored" expos
"A society is not corrupted" Mag
istrate Gordon held. "by exhibitions to
which 1t has become quite accustom-
ed and which it accepts as common"
He pointed out that the whole effect
is not unlike that which may be seen
in paint marble or bronze in nearly
every art gallery"
Magistrate Brodsky applied the
morals of Broadway TO the less expen-
sive Fights avenue theatres.
1.-The poor man wants to see the
young ladies shake the shimmy as well
as does the rich man." he declared.
Years ago such a performance might
have been wrong. But now the people
want it.
! Not so long ago, the stage seldom
echoed anything stronged than by
! crickety.' After vaudeville had led
| the way. the legitimate theatre began
| to produce plays with realistic dia-
| logue." Certain plays attract large
crowds partly because of the fame OF
| their "shocllers.'
Pulpits rang with denunciations ri
| the social decadence" revealed AT the
! Thaw trial: yet the episode of Earl
I Carroll's recent "bathtub party pass
/ ed in comparative silence as far as il
/ concerned the attendance of proml-
| neut men and women. qr-
! Indignation last year revived the
! play jury" system to pass upon the
! alleged obscenty of Broadway produc-
! tious. This year only three charges
were brought against performances
| Only one resulted in conviction
Magistrate Gordon in the Broad
way Eve" case summed up with the
! statement: while prurient court