It was a famous case in its day, and the claimant found supporters, just as the absurd Tichborne Claimant found supporters.

But Butler's right to "Nothing to Wear" was fully substantiated.

Horace Greeley made the controversy the subject of a vigorous editorial in the "Tribune," and "Harper's Weekly," in which the poem had originally appeared, pointed out that although the verses were published in February, the spurious claim was not put forward until July.

Writing of "Nothing to Wear" forty years later, W.D.Howells said: "For the student of our literature 'Nothing to Wear' has the interest and value of satire in which our society life came to its full consciousness for the first time.

To be sure there had been the studies of New York called 'The Potiphar Papers,' in which Curtis had painted the foolish and unlovely face of our fashionable life, but with always an eye on other methods and other models; and 'Nothing to Wear' came with the authority and the appeal of something quite indigenous in matter and manner.