AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9491, 21 April 1894, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE.

♦ . DRINKING OUT OF A LADY'S SHOE. " A STRUGGLE FOR THE HONOUR." Our London correspondent writes :—A case which has excited much amusement occupied the Court of Queen's Bench all day yesterday (March 28), engrossing the time of two eminent judges, three Queen's counsel, two legal M.P.'s, and several other lawyers. And the subject of it all was a girl's shoe! Columns appear in the papers about the case, and it is remarked that Miss Duncan's slipper must be added to the long list of articles of apparel which have become famous in history—tnoluding Joseph's coac, Elijah's mantle, Raleigh's cloak, the historic garter, and Mr. Gladstone's collars. Miss Duncan, whose chausstire has become so widely famous, is a pretty, attractive girl, petite and merry-looking, with a fresh colour, a very white throat, and rich brown hair brushed off her face. She is a lawyer's clerk, aged 22, and is a member of the i Democratic Club, whose object as defined by an unfriendly critic is " the eternal suppression of the aristocracy," which object is sought to be attained mainly by "impromptu dances, Saturday evening smoking concerts, and promiscuous cigarettesmoking." Miss Duncan had a dispute with the club committee, and they suspended her. Sue brought an action against them and applied for an injunction to restrain them from excluding her pending its decision. The court first granted it, then revoked ib on the representation of the committee that they had been within their powers in suspending Miss Duncan, and lastly the whole question had been re-opened. Meanwhile the Times and Daily Telegraph and Westminster Gazette gob hold of some affidavits which had been before the Court bub nob made public, and commented freely upon the facts disclosed. In the committee's affidavit they averred that Miss Duncan had been suspended under a by-law against " misconduct." It was alleged that this misconduct consisted in allowing a number of gentlemen to drink wine out/ of her shoe, She has pretty little feet and wears pretty little shoes, and it is asserted that there was quite a rush among her admirers to participate in this form of homage to her personal and pedal charms. The Daily Telegraph fairly revelled in this case, and danced around the amorous Democrats with characteristic Telegraphic humour. Ib said: —"Nebuchadnezzar ate grass like the beasts of the field because he could not help it—beside he was a capitalist and therefore nothing better could be expected of him. But what is the outside world to think of democrats who inaugurate the social millennium by drinking out of a lady's shoe, nob only drinking ouc of this curious cup but struggling for the honour?" It goes on to remark, "Ib was a high compliment to the young lady," and thai) the young men probably sing that they " Drink to her only from her shoes," thus varying Ben Jonson's lyric. But, said the Telegraph, "ib has landed her into serious difficulties with the committee, who seek to deprive her of the advantages of the club on the ground chat the acceptance of such homage is unworthy of a good Democrat." The Times gave very fully the affidavits touching the shoe-drinking performance, but omitted to mention Miss Duncan's affidavit denying that she had allowed it. The Westminster Gazette had merely commented upon the Times' report with the heading " Drinking from a Democratic Damsel's Shoe." So far as can be judged from the somewhat fragmentary specification of the actual facts of the case, it does not seem to be denied that certain devoted Democrats did drink out of Miss Duncan's shoe. What is denied is that she allowed it. There is no explanation how those Democrats got hold of the shoe when they used it as a drinking cup—whether they took it oil' her foot by main force, or whether ib was surreptitiously seized when she had discarded it for a walking-boot or was about to put it on after removing her walking chaws-sure. But she held that the publication of these statements and comments were calculated to damage her case ft the action pending against the club and were likely to cause her dismissal by her employer. So she moved by counsel to commit the Times and Daily Telegraph and Westminster Gazette for uontempc of court. Her counsel waxed indignant at the imputation against his fair client, and went so far as to declare thab tho girl who allowed men to drink out of ner shoe, and was proud of the homage, would be " unfit for human society." This seems " piling it up rather mountaynious," as Sara Weller says, and so the judges appeared to think, for they promptly ridiculed the observation and remarked thab the proceeding was eimply a revival of an old-fashioned custom. In the end all the motions for committal wore dismissedin two cases with costs — in the Times case without costs, because the court thought the reporter ought to have mentioned Miss Duncan's denial, although the judges believed he only referred to the facts ab all to save her from the reflections which might have been conveyed by the mere statement that she had been suspended for " misconduct." ' The whole thing seems a ridiculous storm in a teacup, bub it is a splendid advertisement for the girl oub of whose shoe a crowd of men were so eager to drink. ' I should imagine the charming Miss Duncan will be overwhelmed with offers of marriage during the next few days. That is how these things usually go.