Mate Took Food Sent to Lepers, Woman Charges

Oakland, California, 1921

Charging that her husband, Arthur Meyer, head gardener at the county hospital, insisted on eating choice foods reserved for the members of the leper colony and that when she refused to give him the delicacies he cursed her and called her a "crazy fool," Mrs. Cora Myers, former matron of the county hospital leper colony, today filed suit for divorce.

She alleges that shortly after their marriage last January 11, her husband insisted on eating the food provided for the lepers. She says that when she told him he could not take the edibles from these stricken people he abused her so severely that she was taken ill. She further charges that Myers then went to the superintendent of the hospital and caused her to be discharged by stating that she was a trouble maker.

Mrs. Meyers alleges that after she had been removed to a room in San Leandro her husband came to the place and raised such a row that she was forced to leave. She asks $75 a month alimony, attorney fees and costs of action, together with a restraining order preventing Meyer from disposing of his wages. The couple separated March 26, 1921.

—Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California, May 19, 1921, page 24.