The times., 1898-04-24
PORTIA AND THE POOR.
Young Jewish Attorney Rights TheIr
Wrongs Wffhf Pm

cUliar relation 70 the New York poor.
and is a subtly helpful influence in the
ghetto and its vast German and Italian
contingent, is Miss Rosalie Loew. act
ing assistant attorney OF the Legal Aid
Society
/ There are deaconesses and misiOnar-
les. trained nurses and Red Cross dis
ciples, working daily in this vortex OF
humanity. but no one OF them or the
charities they represent. can give just
the help that the deputy of the Legal
| Aid Association is empowered to offer.
! Spiritual and physical needs the organi-
zation cares for without stint but the
hurts of injustice, hurts that rankIe
| deep and embitter the victims against
/ the very land that harbOrs them are OF
| another sort; these are soOthed and set
right by the society that gives To the
| pennilesS man a competent lawyer to
! fight his claims for him, without mon
| ey and without price
Go TO the Legal Aid rooms when you
Will and the benches are lined with ap-
piicants bearing more or less sign of
need and hardship. waiting for one or
| the other of the attorneys to see them.
From s O'Clock in the morning until
at night, on days that she does not go to
court the young Jewish girl listens TO
the plants and grievances OF clients
An official in the outer Office has pre-
viously sounded the measure of affrOnt
or wrong and has sifted the applicants
requiring actual appeal to the courts.
from those whose claims allow of Get
Ting without recourse to law. So each
one of the women and men who confer
with the slender, dark-eyed counselor
are in actual need of legal interference.
A woman'S husband has failed to sup
port her, has perhaps cast her aside
and taken another wife. leaving her
to care for his four or five children as
best she may. II is more than likely
that the woman tells this story in a for
eign tongue and that her features de-
clare Jewish origin The client before
her spoke German. yet another in the
mixed Hebrew Russian Yeddish that
would puzzle an expert linguist but
whatever the tongue and tenor OF the
trouble, however garbled and obscure
the young attorney goes straight TO the
bottom of it and fishes up the facts
most pertinent. and the very points,
perhaps, that the client would have
made clear before, had she known how,
but ignorance and embarrassment to-
gether are bar to lucid expression
1t is just in this particular that the
woman's tact and intuition supplied by
Miss LOew has been. for three years
such a boon to the legal aid work II
takes patience and peculiar sympathy
to unravel the thread OF an applicants
story that has got lOoped and caught
in "Os" and Ans" and evidences OF
emotion. The assistant attorney has
both attributes in a marked degree,
and her chief, Mr.. Carl Schruz. dele
gates to her many tasks that would
wear out a mere mans capacity in that
direction.
According to the old Mosaic tenets
a man is put away by his wife, she hav-
ing no say in the matter, by merely
handing her to the ''ghet," with proper
ceremony, before a rabbi. This "ghet''
is written in the presence OF the rabbi
with writing material owned by the
husband
After this simple divorce proceeding
the man is at liberty TO wed again.
According to the American law this
rabbits 'ghet' does not sanction re-
marriage, but some of the husbands
and rabbis alike are acquainted only
with their orthodox teachings and ten
cts and are utterly ignorant of Ameri-
can dictates and penalties Numerous
East side wives bear the brunt of this
unfortunate misunderstanding of rights
and the legal aid. in all cases. adjusts
their injuries, and, where reconciliation
with the husband is futile, sees 10 it
that that false and tickle individual
pays certain stipend per week, in
proportion to his means, for the sup
port of his rightful wife and children
IL falls out often that, for other rea-
sons that the husbands desire for
new spouse. the East side wife is un-
happy. Among the poor and humble
in station, WOmen's rights are still
mainly in allegiance, wife beating is so
common as too excite scant comment,
and the husband uses his tacit pFeTO-
gatiye to the fullest. hiding the chill
dren from the mother. if he sees fit TO
do so, and making her life intolerable
in otl-er ways. Until the Legal Aid
Society was instituted, the wrOnssd
women stood things as best they could.
but now numbers OF them appeal for
remedy, and TO none is a deaf ear turn
ed. Miss Loew sees them all.
1T does me good 10 help them" she
said, in speaking of her work Il get
interested daily in securing wages il
legally withheld and in righting ether
Outrages for my clients. but these cases
that We call our family troubles ap-
peal TO me particularly
I feel very tender toward my out
ragged wives, and, although l know that
their ignorance and perhaps over
hasty temper may have brought on the
worst that happened. still theirs is the
most onerous part to bear, and they
have my sympathy.
That woman who just went out. the
young woman with the pathetic face;
she has not seen her children for
months. Her husband and his mother
have quarreled with her, turned her
adrift and seereted the children, the
youngest an infant. somewhere where
she can't either see or hear OF them
She is ignorant, with little ability 10
tell her story clearly, but it is plain TO
me that she has been much put upon
by heartless husband. and I shall take
delight in bringing him 10 justice
Miss Loew spends a good deal of her
| time in court, and Mr.. Buesen, the able
counselor who is the president of the
| society, speaks in high terms OF her ef-
| ficiency as an advocate. Besides her
| legal relations 10 the applicants, the
young lawyer is appealed 10 on all sides
| concerning matters apart from her
calling She is mentor and guide com
bined TO a large coStituency, and men
and women. years her senior, consult
her in emergency,
Not long ago she received a money
order for $1175 from a Pennsylvania
postoffice followed up by letter from
a former client stating that this sum
represented his savings and he hoped
she wOulu keep il for him until called
for. He was a German labOrer whom
the society had served. He had since
got work in the country and could
think of no better friend 10 trust with
his little all than the young woman at
tOrney who had once taken his part
against an OppreSSOr. y cash boy the
other day sent Miss LOew 45 cents, an
installment of the sum she had leaned