Irene C. McLaughlin to Clarence Darrow, May 28, 1929
Irene McLaughlin is most probably referring to Dudley Field Malone, who was her divorce attorney when she divorced Robert Treman in 1923. Clarence Darrow and Dudley Field Malone were co-counsel during the 1925 Scopes anti-evolution trial in Tennessee.
Click on the image to view as a PDF. A transcription of the letter is on the right.
May 28, '29
Irene McLaughlin
Lake Forest, Illinois
My dear Mr Darrow: —
You can see what I am up against[.] I must ask this favor of you. All I can do is call the subject to your mind — pray that you are in sympathy with me — and ask that if you can at any time , without inconvenience and
expense — put in a few good words for the "Dog Exemption Bill" — do so. We must spare this best friend of man if possible. It seems a reasonable request to relieve him from the suffering of experimentation[.] We have made the dog such a part of our family life, and educated
— or rather domesticated him to such a level of intelligence that his powers of suffering — must be more acute than that of most animals.
I could send you worlds of unhappy literature on the subject but if you love animals it would only keep you awake nights — so I will spare you that; unless you ask for it.
Dudley has told me so much about you — and promised we should meet some day — he is a very dear and old friend.
Most cordially yours
Irene Castle McLaughlin
(Mrs Frederic McLaughlin)