Year: 1878


Who would have thought that Judge
Hilton's simple remark about the cause
of the failure of the Woman's Hotel
would raise such q storm about his earsi
Irwas as good as seeing the great Count
Joannes as Romeo or Richard to attend
the indignation meeting IN Cooper In
stitute. have no doubt that the women
on the platform were highly indignant
but if the audience WAS so | could not
see it. 1t was rather late when got in,
and the hall was so packed with people
that there was no chance to get beyond
the doorway, especially as policeman
with club played Cerebus and empha-
sized his objections with the locust (this
is locustom quite common IN Gotham),
but the waves of hilarity came ripping
out over the heads of the crowd told that
the folks inside were having good time.
On my way to the Institute friend
asked me if intended to see the hair
pulling. That was the way the indigna-
tion meeting was looked at by the general
public, and evidently by most of those
present. People seemed to think 1t
good joke and certainly the crowd got a
good deal of fun out Of it. Wall street
was represented by delegation of lively
young brokers, who pounded the floor
with their canes, stamped with their
feet, got up yell chorus now and then,
and raised the mischief generally. They
seemed to regard the affair as on par
with one of George Francis Trains mass
meetings, or Shakesperian delineation
by the Count. Most of the audience ap-
parently took the same view OF it and
acted accordingly. Finding a long-haired
man, evidently sympathizer, in one of
tho door-ways, trying to hear, but not
catching much more than medley of
cheers, laughter and miscellaneous up
roar, | decided to interview him.


"Quite meeting my friend, hut what
is it all about, anyway


ut is meeting called by eminent la
dies, sir, many of them distinguished in
literature, to protest against the out
rageous language applied to their sex by
Judge Hilton"


"lndeed What has he saidl'


"Said, sir, said! The language he has
used, sir, is simply attrocious."


"Ahl Pray what is it2'


"Why, sir he has said that one reason
why women would not go to his hotel
was because men were not admitted. He
has said that nearly all women, even
those in middle life, hope to get hus-
bands, and because the rules Of his hotel
prevented men from going there, except
in formal way, the women stayed
away


"And so they got mad about that1'


"Well sir, should not express it that
way, but the ladies naturally became in
dignant and this meeting was called to
give expression to their protest against
the gratuitous insult uttered by Judge
Hilton"


"But is it certain that Judge Hilton
used the offensive languagel"


"He was SO reporter in the Times, and
if the reporter made mistake it should
have been corrected


Have the ladias asked Judge Hilton
whether he used the language or notl"


THAT | do not know. But as no cor
rection has appeared it is to be supposed
the language was used"


swell, supposing that Judge Hilton
did say what the reporter ascribed to
him, wherein was it so offensive as the
ladies say1"


"Why, sir, it was coarse and ungen-
tlemanly, and it is right that the sex
should be vim


But at that moment the crowd backed
up against the man with the long hair
and pressed him tightly to the wall, and
when he had succeeded in releasing him
self after much hard squeezing, he seemed
to have lost the thread of his remark.


A great deal was said at the meeting
about withdrawing custom from Judge
Hilton's store, but it did not seem to
have much effect ON ladies who had shop
ping to do next day. There were just as
many carriages outside as usual and the
army of clerks had all the business in.
side they could attend to. Judge Hilton
informed reporter in the course of the
day that he paid no attention to the in
dignstion meeting or those who engen-
dered il, and that such things have no
effect whatever upon business. This may
be so, but the general belief here is that
very considerable decline has taken
place in the business since MIR. Stewards
death. 1t is certain that the greater part
of the Hebrew trade that the firm for
merly had has been withdrawn, and it is
not at all unlikely that the ladies who
have taken otfense at Judge Hilton'S
language will succeed in taking away
some of the general trade. Persons
claiming to be well informed say that
the Stewards estate is shrinking under
Judge Hilton's management, and some
go further. General assertions of this
kind are not of much account, though it
is probably quite true that the estate is
not as valuable now as it was two or three
years ago; Stewart's whole fortune was
invested in real estate, factories and dry
goods, and everybody knows that each
Of these has undergone good deal Of
shrinkage since his death. If the total
estate was then S4O,OOO,OOO, which is
pretty large figure, it probably is not