"SOCIETY" SLANG-WHANGING SLANDER SUIT.

NZ Truth, Issue 340, 30 December 1911, Page 8

"SOCIETY" SLANG-WHANGING SLANDER SUIT.

FashioTfable Females Make .the Fur Fly. A British jury are the most painfully moral set of men m the world. They really look upon themselves as the bulwark of the British nation, and they have constituted themselves the guardians of that rabid offensive British brand of virtue which we used to hear such a lot about m the days of Queen .Victoria —that form of virtue which pointed proudly to the British Bible as the secret of "England's greatness," and insisted that the stodgy middle-class British matron was the apex of female virtue,-and the adniir'alion of the whole world, as all that was wonderful and pure m womanhood. That class of domestic paragon, if she ever existed, has passed away with the Victorian age, but the British juryman still constitutes himself the watchdog guarding' the sanctity of ■■'"'.' " ''; '• "BRITISH "HOME ,Ll#; r> . . and '.'the pure domestic.-married ties which have made England what she is," and all the rest-.of :--ihe .-Sunday--. at-Home mottoes which ; make up his idea of. English respectability. The British juryman, -zealously, guarding a lot of things-:that.-have no-longer any • existence except m. .his imagination, would be rather :a pathetic ■. spectacle if he were not so incorrigibly vicious with it all; so infernally-a pretentious, bragging, bumptious, Bull-..-hypocrite. "Woe to the man or woman who comes into, his hands with "a. past." "No matter how strong the merits of their rase, the British juryman, declines to "'believe! anything --good- -about, them. They have disgraced;his stodgy stands ard of British respectability;; and they must pay the penalty at his outraged liarids. Above all things does the British juryman hate the modern "FRISKY" BRITISH MATRON of the fast, set —the bridge-playing, cig-arette-smoking, liqueur-drinking,^ -desperately •'•fast"-' female, ' who lias smashed up all his British idols. It" rhe comes into the hands of the Brit.-: : r--h juryman, then, only the Lord can lielp ' her, ./for though she .have law, i .i:\soh, weight of evidence,. judge, and loading, advocates.on-her side, all these r:re powerless to save her from the remorseless fury, of her. implacable I'Of. o . Thai's what Mrs. Atherton, formerly a well-known figure m IJnglish society, has just been finding out to her coat. She brought an action for slander against, her sister-in-law, Lady Dean j-'aul, which she 9 should have won on vhe merits, and actually did win technically, but she /was only awarded a i'arthing damages by a British jury avlto had been outraged m their most virtuous;. British feelings. But Mrs. Alherton has a past —a notorious past —as detailed below, and that ' COOKED HER GOOSE Svith the« virtuous British jury. The case caused- the most intense interest among• •* Society," circles, and fashionable l>/nales of' the "smart . .set" fought ;svith the fury of viragoe* to get into /the court to luear it tried, r.nd see the celebrated divorcee-who was plaintiff../ Yet the case/itself was a trashy, trivial affair, bearing' on the cattishness of the virtuous Lady Dean Paul to her-fast- sis+.er-in-lawr. Lady 33ean Paul circulated a story to the effect that Mrs. Atherton had been turned ••put-of the Savoy Hotel at Cairo (where sMch a lot of English "fashionables ". ■winter nov^adays)—^presumably on account of her " past." Mrs. Athp.rton went'round to see Paul and demand an; explanation,' 'a fe*male pal . with ' her, when ensued a' .scene that.^would. have, done, honor to a. set of Aberdeen fisly-wives. 1 The female tabbies got their claws out at once and . " SOME HOT TALK FLEW ABOUT. Lady. Paul , called Mrs. Atfoerton ,'"■»• disreputable woman," and. "nothingbetter thar> a strer.t walker,"- and invited her nusbap.d, •. Mrs. Alherton's Mother (whom Mrs. Atherton subseouently joined as co-defcandant m the case, because.- as Lady Paul's husband, he was legally responsible foz\his wife's remarks) to throw Mrs. Ather--lon downstairs. • Mrs. Attherton told Lady Paul, /among other things, that "it..was li'.<e her damned .cheek" to circulate storied about her, and Mrs. St&cpoolc, Mrs. Athenian's sister, gave good support : "by.- designating Lady Paul us a halt-bred Polii*t Jew, and ■'• v. common, r.loV;. vaalgar., little Pole," whose mother was "a- -low. common woman." The fclangwhanging match (each fezftale, of. course, denied, m the witness-box that" "she had'" ißsed the language attributed to her, though, al.lesing all sorts 1 .rf. gutter ldriguage' had ■lieen used by the-• cats on the other side) would icA'e ended m the-infuri-ated females " ■ ' '•• ' ■■■"-■ USING ; THEIR. ': CLAWS, on each other?--a blow:with a muff and a. hand-."?lap w^re; acttffiUy exchanged— lit't for a. li-~t\9. timely comtnoiisense on The part nf.-'Lady/PanTs husband. Disentangling- the case from this exhibition ot'l'em.'Je feiinity and ferocity, ilie jury, had very little difficulty m urrivins; .it th/r fact that Lady Dean Piiul haO ircde the statement that :«irs. Atherion had been turned out : <>r the note", at Ca:ro. Now, as Mrs. Aiherion yfiieed 5k .xnv the .jury a busir.i's.i letlei* S.Yom tl* 1 hotel manasfsr ex-liiv-ssiiis. pleasure at the prospect of lir-rreiurri there for tho coming winter, and statin.*-; that her previous rooms had -been reserved for her, the verdict should have c-.jsrried damages, - as she haOU-*>w>-V.ed her ea?« up to the hilt. .tint dui'fti^ the.; progress of'the case _3Vrrs Atherton \s variegated past had. bo?n carefully dragged, fcjrth to the* l!p.ht of day,/both by ,the s lawyers of Lady Paul and the JvIO.XGRJSr, HATL7^-PEXiN-Y PRESS, Avliich thou'sntfully printed it m full I'd* the benefit of the jurymen who might not have caught' the . details. And such a past, too! Here it ir:—• 19CC— "Divorcpd by,. her husband. Colonel. Thonriaß....A.ther'con, the co-re-spondent" beioe 'joh/i^tßeginakl Yardeof • tfKj Guards (now Lord (^Jlurston). >• The parti'eulairs of this divorce suit, the most famous, or infaouous, case of Ihe year, shocked an EngUih dl-.

vorcc courl judge accustomed to the " morals " of ICns-Jish. society. He ad-' ministered a scathing- castig'ation to the '■'smart set" on their ■disgraceful looseness of life,, as evinced by some of the evidence m the case, and intimated, m effect, that the morals of London "Society" people were fast degenerating to the level of the poultry yard. Yarde-Buller was COMPARATIVELY A BOY at the time, and Mrs Atherton, if not old enough to be his mother," was a .mature woman, and the mother of a young son. 1907. — The Hon. Yarde-Buller having married Miss' Denise" Orme, the actress, Mrs Atherton brought a breach of promise action against' him, claiming £20,000 damages. This " resulted- : ih judgment (by consent) for Mrs Atlier? ton: " 1909.— Mrs Stirling failed to get a divorce against her husband, . with whose name she, had coupled that . of Mrs Atherton. ■- •■ ' And the shocked British jury, on hearing this little- list, went out to consider their Verdict with pained reeti--tude depicted -plainly- on their heavy* : „...' FAT, RED, MOTTLED, British countenance, and. when they returned,, after. 20 minutes, they announced that they, had come to the" conclusion that iiaa fly Dean Paul had made the statement to the effect that Mrs Athereon was turned out of her hotel at Cairo, but did not say that Mrs Atherton. was "no better than a street Woman." Mrs Atherton, 'they added, was entitled to" no damages. •••' His Lordship . (to the jury) : You mean nominal damages; a farthing ? Tha foreman : Yes. ' ' The verdict carried no costs; so each, party will have to pay 'their "own. "'" ' •