The devil inside me

Bellevue News-Democrat, January 28, 1921. Oh, those suave Italians and their dark arts of seduction. Without the Mann Law, where would we all have been?

The first rule of Fight Court is to make sure everybody knows about Fight Court

New York Times, February 7, 1935. Interesting to see a judge urging a defendant to take the law into his own hands. With the tacit, winking approval of the New York Times, no less.

High plains jamboree

Chicago Defender, September 15, 1928. Even more than most dudes, Dr. Martin here should not have been stepping out on his wife. He’s the last word in gallant cavaliers, our Dr. Martin. My theory is that Dr. and Mrs. Martin were actually S&M buffs acting out some creepy, well-rehearsed power-exchange ritual. They probably went through a couple of school marms every year.

“As is invariably the case, a woman was the cause of the difficulty.”

Chicago Tribune, October 30, 1871. This is rather an ungenerous little bit of reportage on several counts. Imagine that you’re just out of the city lockup, your ex-boyfriend shoots your current beau in front of you, and then the newspaper blames for you and all your sex for it, and then calls you “an old Bridewell hag” in the bargain. All told, a pretty rough week for poor Rose Clark.

Arkansas traveler

Chicago Tribune, December 8, 1929. Here’s a mysterious dialect-laden little drama set among the feuding hillfolk of Arkansas.

I only have eyes for you

Mattoon (Illinois) Daily Journal, October 28, 1904. Reader Erin F. obligingly shares with us this exemplary acid-attack romantic triangle. I’m thinking it was to the advantage of Fireman Stump that his eyeballs weren’t buffered by cocaine when he took it in the face. There’s a fairy-tale ending to the story after the jump. But it goes without saying that if you have acid-attack anecdotes on hand, we have space for them here at the Hope Chest.

Raising Cain

Detroit News, March 18, 1931. I can’t imagine this strategy succeeded in winning back his mother’s love.

Driving urge

The Baltimore African-American, June 1, 1929. No Driving Miss Daisy headlines here at The Hope Chest, as befits a class joint what I are tryin’ to run here. Scandal continues over the jump, plus there’s a novel mutation to our fungible friend, the Unwritten Law.

Affections, twice alienated

Detroit News, April 29, 1931. It used to be standard practice in adultery-related divorce suits for the cheated-upon parties to sue the third party for “alienation of affections.” Essentially the seducer or seductress had robbed of them of a lifetime of lovin’, and they were entitled to cash compensation for that loss. But then it was ultimately up to a judge or jury to determine how much all that lovin’ was worth. What were the criteria? In the above case, the jury is implicitly measuring love by the pound. But there had to be hurt feelings to go around when an award came back $30K light. Even the new possessor of the runaway spouse has to feel insulted on some level, even if he or she is catching a huge financial break

But then there’s this other case to consider, from Detroit News, March 19, 1931:

Man Slays Wife, Then Kills Himself

Detroit News, April 27, 1931. Somehow I would expect pheasant breeders to be a highly-strung bunch, but still . . .
Not sure whether we are meant to pick up on some coded implication of hanky-panky involving the slain wife and her bedroom guest. Calling the latter “hysterical” is a tad unfeeling, though, whatever the facts of the matter.