Articles on the Cherry Sisters

Effie is an old jade of 50 summers, Jessie a frisky filly of 40, and Addie, the flower of the family, a capering monstrosity of 35. Their long, skinny arms, equipped with talons at the extremities, swung mechanically, and soon were waved frantically at the suffering spectators. The mouths of their rancid features opened like caverns and sounds like the wailings of damned souls issued therefrom. They pranced around the stage with a motion that suggested a cross between the danse du ventre and a fox trot, strange creatures with painted faces and hideous mien. Effie is spavined, Addie is knock-kneed and stringhalt, and Jessie, the only one who showed her stockings, has legs without calves, as classic in their outlines as the curves of a broom handle. The misguided fellows who came to see a leg show got their money’s worth, for they never saw such limbs before and never will again–outside of a boneyard.
—Articles on the Cherry Sisters (Oldebolt History)

From a collection of articles about the Cherry Sisters, an apparently ghastly sister act from the 1890s. The lawsuit generated by the above review led to a court decision that protected newspapers from libel suits launched by performers wishing to get revenge against papers that published bad reviews. Via Metafilter, which features additional links to some great context.