WHAT IS BEAUTY?

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 11248, 11 April 1908, Page 1 (Supplement)

WHAT IS BEAUTY?

AMUSING- CASE : BEVORE" ; A JURY. ' UNGALLANT HUSBAND. A f ter a trial replete with humorous inj cidents,:a jury sitting at Chicago under Judge Landis, who earned immortal fame by. imposing tlie,fin.e- of £6^000,000 on the Standard. Oil Company, has convict cd;of fraud Mrs* Goodenough, a marriage broker, or,- m the Auicricjm vernacular, an . "affinity collector, ',' for making re, presentations regarding the beauty ol one; of her .clients, a buxom lady of Texas..- ; ' . Not sin^e the, classical days of the Judgment., of. Paris -has such a subject been, submitted to legal adjudication, and the trial was consequently, watched throughout the country with breathless interest, broken by f requent outbursts of Homeric laughter. The .action was brought by Mr Grable a gentleman of Missouri, who recently married a widow of Texas on the strength of Mrs Goodcuough's written guarantee that she was wealthy and good-looking. Mr Grable. was apparently contented with his • wife's wealth, but declared that m styling her goodlooking Mrs Goodenough perpetrated a fraud through the medium of the United States mail. , . ... Mrs Goodenough, ; m defence, contended that her guarantee merely meant that the Texas widow was handsome enough for Mr Grable. She argued through her counsel that beauty was a relative term— that a belle m Texas might be a "wallower" m Missouri/ and that, m any case, beauty was only skin deep. The jury asucd to see , Mrs Grable, and after deliberating for twenty-four hours delivered, their verdict that Mrs Goodenough was guilty. Judge Landis imposed a fine of £100, with the alternative of eighteen months' imprisonment. The' defendant immediately gave notice of appeal, which will be heard on March 2.