SELFISH INTENTIONS - K-REx - Kansas State University

Conclusion
Ida Marion Selts, Bertha Holtzgang, and Susanna Sanders Downing were three women
who were able to use the liberal divorce laws of Kansas to achieve something of a “victory” out
of their divorces. But we must not suppose that such women represented the majority of cases.
Judges might complain of women who stood in their courts and told “tales of woe,” but for many
women, frequently the ones who were the poorest, those tales were all too real. Indeed, the
record at times illuminates, not the possibilities of divorce, but rather all-too-common tragedy for
women who lacked the resources to escape from brutality.
An extreme case in Riley County, Kansas, demonstrates this reality all too clearly. In the
early 1920s, Clara Lee was married to J. M. Lee who was, by everyone’s account, a drunk. Mr.
Lee, whom the newspaper openly described as “worthless,” habitually threatened and beat his
wife. The police had arrested Mr. Lee on several occasions for drunkenness: indeed his severe
addiction to alcohol had led him to the consumption of “Force,” a medicine, or lemon extract, or
any other intoxicant he could get his hands on. Neighbors contended that Mr. Lee would steal
canned fruit and other goods that had been bought for the home and return them the store in
exchange for lemon extract. Mr. Lee’s neighbors told the newspaper that he had once sold a bag
of chicken feed in order to use the money to pay for liquor. Due to her husband’s habitual
drunkenness, Clara Lee was the sole support of her family which included two young sons. Mrs.
Lee brought in money by doing laundry; in order to make ends meet she would do as many as 25
to 30 washings per week. Clearly, her actions made it difficult for Mrs. Lee to support their
family when he used the money that she earned from washing to buy alcohol, and his physical
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