Women Cannot Collect Damages If They Wear Long Skirts

Chicago, 1903

Law Hitched to the Skirt

Women must hold up their skirts and protect their gowns from threatening nails and sharp corners while shopping or marketing, says the Chicago Tribune.

Justice Hurley yesterday refused the protection of the law to those who neglect such simple precautions. It also appeared that the woman who goes marketing in a silk skirt with a flowing train, made for Derby day, has little standing in his court.

On these points Mrs. Lucy O'Donnell, 1010 Garfield boulevard, lost her suit for damages against John R. Thompson. Mrs. O'Donnell's skirt, in an unhappy moment, caught on a nail on an orange box in Mr. Thompson's store at 38 State street and a large hole was torn in the garment. She said the gown had cost $15 and she wanted that amount of money from Mr. Thompson.

"You were in a great hurry when you entered the store?" asked Adolph Raphael, Mr. Thompson's attorney.

"Of course I was in a hurry. I had been to meet some friends at the depot and I wanted to do my marketing and get home. I rushed in and hastened to the rear to the meat counter. Suddenly I heard something tear. I was walking so fast I had to take two more steps before I could stop to investigate. Then I found my fine silk skirt torn to pieces.

Mrs. O'Donnell proceeded to tell how the garment had been made to wear on Derby day and what its value was.

"Was not that an expensive gown to go shopping in?" suggested the attorney.

"That doesn't make any difference," retorted the witness.

"And did you hold the train up?" asked the court, taking a hand in the questioning.

"No, I did not. If I had, the tear would have been much worse."

"Those orange boxes were securely stowed under the counter," Justice Hurley said. "The fault was with Mrs. O'Donnell, she should have held up her skirt. Let women carry their skirts and not trail them over the floors and furnishings."