Howe & Hummel, Their True and Scandalous History

This is a multi-part New Yorker magazine article in book form. But it dates from the Ross rather than Shawn era, which means the prose is snappy rather than ponderous, and the tone amused rather than pontifical. It's by no means a scholarly work, but significant research must have gone into it. Howe and Hummel were highly successful storefront lawyers of the 1880-1905 era, specializing in the outrageously bogus defense of the plainly guilty (Howe) and entertainment law (Hummel), with a lucrative sideline in blackmail (Hummel). In short, they were modern lawyers working in the gaslight era. Today one part of their business would be advertised with billboards, a second other part would have its office in Beverly Hills, and the third would specialize in class actions, and there would be no visible connection between them. It's perversely charming, and in a way enlightening, to see how they managed to integrate what seem at first glance to be quite disparate practices. The book is a collection of anecdotes of their practice, arranged in roughly chronological order so as to provide a kind of sketchy biography of each of the principals. It can be read in two or three sittings, as if in two or three consecutive issues of the magazine.

Otherwise known as "The Magnificient Shysters," Howe and Hummel were two crooked lawyers of 19th century New York. If you think today's lawyers are crooks, you should read about the exploits of Messrs Howe and Hummel; they bear no comparison. For example you will read about suits for breach of promise. If a man slept with a woman on the understanding that he would shortly marry her, and he broke that promise, the woman could sue him for breach of promise to marry. Some of the lawyers' income depended on a coterie of sophisticated New York women, semi-prostitutes, who "led on" innocent young men from the sticks up in New York for the first time. After a brief relationship these women would file suit for breach of promise and daddy would invariably pay up rather than face the embarrassment of a public court case. If you like reading about the hidden by-ways of history you will love this book. A great little book.