Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-06-21
Woman Lawyer Who Solved Ruth Cruger Mys-
terry Determined to Find More Missing
Young Women
By M'LISS

but-this sorrowfully-"it was not to be.
Yes. my husband is a lawyer" she
laughed, and Of course, you are wonder
ing why we are not in partnership to-
gether. That's what every one wants to
know. Well because we like to live in
peace and amty after office hours.
HUSBAND REAL MAN
MY husband is a big lawyer and real
MAN" she continued proudly we seldom
talk about our business affairs. Sometimes
he tells me about his cases and I consult
him about mine"-there was something de-
liciously feminine in the choice Of the
verbs-'but we do not often inject business
into our home life"
reads like a thriller. The Cruger case is
but one of several spectacular ones in
which she has figured prominently.
Born Of an old New York family, she was
graduated from Hunter College in 1888,
and sidestepping the social opportunities
that were hers by right Of birth and posi-.
ton she studied law at night school in
the New York University. Dean Ashley,
impressed with her grasp Of law induced
her to take the day course After taking
her degree she founded the Peoples Law
Firm, designed as she phrased IT, to give
"Waldorf-Astoria advice to those persons
who could afford only to pay lodging-house
prices"
1t was in these early days that her
intuitive sympathy and ability to keep her
clients secrets won her many friends in
the lower walks Of life, the friendship Of
women whom she had helped and whose aid
In cases like the Cruger girls is now proving
of incalcuable value
Then S. S. Mcclure sent me South to
investigate the peonage conditions in the
turpentine camps" She was gulping her
coffee hastily so as to be on time for an ap-
pointment 81 didn't do anything very
spectacular like Disgusting myself | don't
believe in all that, although | did go into
one of the camps as the companion of a
woman peddler and the train that we were
leaving on was shot at I've been shot at
several times'-this negligently-"but I've
never been hit"
Under the Roosevelt administration Mrs.
Humiston, in recognition of the clever in
vestigation work that sha had done. was
appointed an assistant to Attorney General
Bonaparte and "sleuthed" for the Depart
ment of Justice.
Il used to hear Government people talk
about the easy hours-trOm until 4--of a
Federal job" she commented crsply on this
episode in her career 1T was never easy
for me. l worked then as | do now-all
the time because once you get thinking
about the fate of the many young girls who
are trapped or missing you don't take your
mind off them until they are found and
redeemed"
After peonage was abolished in large
measure, due 10 her efforts, Mrs. Humis-
ton went abroad, really to rest, she said, but
her passion for investigation led her astray
again, and before she knew what she was
doing she was involved in a study of immi-
grant conditions and how the peasant girls
of foreign countries were recruited and
trained for the white slave traffic of Amer
lea. AS a result of her discoveries she
wrote series for Pearson's Magazine safe.
guarded under the nom de plume Of Mary
Quackenbos,
Later her Investigations led her to Cuba
and South America, In Lima, Peru, she
met Howard Humiston. She married him
there. This was in 1911, From Lima her
honeymoon took her to Buenos Aires and
then to England on slow boat II was
on this voyage that smallpox broke out
and Mrs. Humiston in the absence OF
physician on board, took medical charge
of the boat Due to the rigid quarantine
precaution she instituted and her unceasing
care an epidemic was avoided When the
ship arrived in port 1t received a clean
bill of health.
Back in New York she established home,
and decided that her public work was over
but / had no children" she told me,
land there was the opportunity to help
other women, and so somehow or other de-
spite all my resolutions to be just a wife
and homekeeper l found myself setting
up law office again"
Then came the case Of Mrs. Antoinette
Tola. It is a great thing to have saved
an innocent person from the death som
tence, but Mrs. Humiston with characteristic
modesty dismissed this with few words.
"somebody came and told me about this
poor Italian woman. 1t was really a
pathetic case. II was true the woman had
killed her husband--there was no denying
that-but things were going so against her
and there was no one TO help" this great
woman lawyer spoke with infinite tender
ness. "and so / just took the matter up"
AS result of taking the matter up Mrs.
Humiston obtained evidence to show that
the poor Italian woman had been driven on
to the streets by her iend Of husband and
that goaded by the outrages he was commit
Ing upon her she killed him fhe woman
had been Condemned. Mrs Humiston nat