Divorce

U. S. publishing reached the acme of specialization last week when the first issue of Divorce appeared. It was printed on cheap paper, eight pages, tabloid newspaper size. It contained few advertisements, only one photograph. Newsstands hawked it for 10-c- a copy. But it had a purpose. Its leading editorial said so: "The purpose of Divorce [a weekly] is not to pander to the seeker for the sensational, but to serve, in such measure as it can, to preserve the sanctity of the American home. Divorce may be seemingly sensational in title, appearance and the character of its news, but it serves a real purpose in giving emphasis to the details which flow through the divorce court. Roosevelt once said that the way to obtain the repeal of an unpopular law was to enforce it. . . . If your wife is discontented, let her read Divorce and realize that it is something more than a simple and convenient easement of the bonds. If your husband seems to be wavering, let him read in these pages the misery, the heartaches, the legal dangers, to the end that his sanity may return to him. . . . It will be by no means dry reading for the public. These are human documents . . . by no means without their humorous side."

A typical case reported by Divorce was that of Mrs. Celia Firestone who saw her husband enter the apartment of another woman in the Bronx. Such items, so common in divorce cases, are dull reading. But Divorce also told how a husband complained in court that his wife had not taken a bath in two years; how a wife complained that her husband had made her sleep in the chicken-coop and sell the hens' eggs to provide herself with necessities; how a husband complained that his wife had been attending strip poker parties when he was away at work, etc., etc. Most of the news in the first issue of Divorce was confined to New York State, but it will cover other states as it grows.