Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/53

 BROWN V. M. & C. K. CO. 8» �The plaintif alleges, in the declaration, that she had pur- chased of the agent of the defendant a first-class ticket from Corinth to Memphis, and took her seat in a car, froin whîcH with, as ÎB alleged, brutal violence, she was ejected. The demurrer insists that the plea shows no ground of defence, and it is argued for the plaintiff that she was not subject to exclusion except for improper conduct exhibited in the car at the time, and by this plea none is alleged. The argument is that the carrier could not refuse to carry her, as long as she behaved properly on the train, because of her alleged bad charaoter, nor exclude her for that cause after having made the contract by the sale of the ticket; at least, not without tendering back the fare, which is not averred in the plea. It does not seem to me that these are the issues tendered by the plea. The conductor did not, accordingto the allegations of the plea, refuse to carry the plaintiff, as by the. contract she was'entitled to be carried, for the plea avers atender of first- class accommodations, which were refused. �The declaration is carefuUy worded, so as to charge that the plaintiff was excluded from a car, and avers that defend- ant refused to carry her "on or in said car," and ejected her with such brutality that she abandoned her trip. This excess- ive force is denied by ,the plea, but ejection from "the ladies' car" is confessed, and sought to be avoided by pleading a regulation forbidding the plaintiff to ride on that particular car because of her bad character. The demurrer, in legal effect, confesses that there was such a regulation as the plea avers, and that the plaintiff was of the bad character charged. The only question, therefore, is, was this a reasonable regula- tion ? Can a carrier set apart a car for the exclusive use of persons "of good character, and genteel and modest deport- ment," and exclude from that car ail persons "of improper character, or addicted to deportment offensive to modesty and decorum," without reference to their demeanor at the time they take passage in the car, and require such persons, although well-behaved at the time, to occupy another car not so exclusive in regard to the persons permitted to occupy it ? ����