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177 Mass. 347

Commonwealth v. Bow

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided January 2, 1901

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1901-01-02

<p>A Merry-go-round maintained in an enclosure opening upon a public street, where music is furnished without charge but a charge is made for riding upon the “ flying horses,” is a public amusement requiring a license under Pub. Sts. c. 102, §§ 115,116.</p>

Relies on Commonwealth v. Quinn

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1901-01-02

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 1967

4 state decisions

101901191019201930194019501960decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Holmes, C. J.

¶1The Merry-go-round was a public amusement within Pub. Sts. c. 102, §§ 115,116. The virtuous character of the enjoyment of those who were amused by it is not enough to make an exception to the general words of the statute. The defendants were active in the entertainment, which was decided not to be necessary in Commonwealth v. Quinn, 164 Mass. 11. The object was amusement only, not instruction, and so the defendants get no help from Commonwealth v. Gee, 6 Cush. 174. It is true that the number of persons who could ride the defendants’ wooden horses at any one time was limited, but that is true of all amusements. The public was invited, and several, if not many, could be accommodated at once. There is nothing to show that the number was so small as to raise the question whether an amusement which could be enjoyed by people only one at a time is public if the public comes to and pays for it in such manner as the nature of the diversion permits.

¶2 Exceptions overruled.

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