FULL
TEXT: A comely young woman studying law in California has announced that she is
pointing toward a very restricted practice, that of defending divorce,
maintenance, alimony, and breach of promise suits for male defendants. In the
language of “Boul’ Mich’” she is “muscling into the alimony racket.” This is an
ideal career for bright and good looking women and if a number joined the
profession it would assist the fair sex by eliminating the game known as
gold-digging and return divorce and alimony to its old status whereby a
deserving but abused wife who needed support can get it.
The
male has had little chance to protect himself when a jury, even of fellow
males, was put under the fire of a tearful beauty on the quest of heart-balm.
The balm and alimony business got so that to engage in it one had to possess
beauty, a baby voice and abundant lachrymation. It was considered another angle
of emancipation of the sex, but it injured an honest practice so that the
self-respecting woman who was deserving of alimony or support, did not feel
like asking for it.
There
are many cases wherein the discarded or abused wife deserves the protection the
laws intended, but her gold digging sisters have edged in and made mockery of
the matter. A Portia to protect the heart-balm defendant should make the merits
of the case count more than the personal charms of the litigants. It will be
fighting fire with fire and it will not injure the cause of the deserving wives
because these fought their cases with facts and not with dainty hosery and
hysterics.
[“Muscling
Into A Good Racket,” The Billings Gazette (Mt.), Feb. 23, 1930, p. 4]
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* Boul’ Mich’: slang for Michigan Boulevard, referring to an
area of Chicago. The term has also been used as a slang name for Boulevard
Saint-Michel in Paris.
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FULL
TEXT (Article 2 of 2): An Alimony Payers’ Protective League is planned by Miss
Hazel Middleton, stenographer in a San Francisco law office, who is studying
law with a view to specializing in the emancipation of husbands from
unreasonable alimony demands.
[Untitled, photo caption, Los Angeles Times (CA.), Part I,
p. 8]
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***
For more on the Heart Balm Racket, see:
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