Jilted wife sicced cops on cad hub

A “rich” railroad contractor, his “beautiful” hat-trimming mistress and his Southern belle wife sparked New York’s firstever criminal adultery case — back in 1907.

The little-known law used to charge businessman Patrick Henry Hirsch and his younger paramour more than a century ago could soon be repealed thanks to a bill recently introduced by a Long Island lawmaker.

On Sept. 1, 1907 — a mere 10 days after Section 255.17 of the state penal code was enacted — detectives stormed into an Upper West Side residence with a warrant to arrest Hirsch and Ruby Yeargain, described as “a beautiful woman” in news reports at the time.

Hirsch — a 40-year-old “dark and clean-shaven” railroad contractor with a wife and son — was “nonplussed” when the detectives handed him the warrant, The New York Times reported at the time.

He was joined inside the “luxuriously furnished” bolt-hole at the Warwick Arms on West 80th Street by “a young woman in negligee attire” — identified as Yeargain, a 26-year-old brunette — and her mother, Bessie.

One of the detectives advised Ruby to “don street attire” before she and her beau were slapped with adultery charges — and held on $500 bail each.

The landmark 1907 case against the cheating pair — who apparently met in 1904 in Chicago, where Yeargain was working as a hat-trimmer at a department store — was the result of a yearslong effort on the part of Hirsch’s wife, Elizabeth Evans.

Born to a wealthy family in Milledgeville, Ga., Evans first met her philandering husband 10 years earlier, when she was 18 years old and taking vocal lessons in New York, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported at the time. Evans and Hirsch eloped in Manhattan in December 1897 against the wishes of her moneyed father, who even requested a meeting with thenMayor William Strong in order to prevent the union.

Despite their scandalous start, the wealthy couple seemed to have a relatively happy life, and even had a son, Patrick Hirsch Jr., around 1900, according to reports.

Hirsch’s run-in with Yeargain, however, derailed the marriage, Evans told detectives.

By the time Hirsch and Yeargain were arrested, Evans was suing for divorce on the grounds that Hirsch had taken up permanent residence with his gal pal.

But a judge reportedly ruled on Oct. 14 that the evidence that Hirsch and Yeargain had formally shacked up was insufficient and the criminal complaint against them was dismissed.