The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 82

mmi immu mmm Why Uncle Sam wmmt immm Runs The World's Busiest mi IB mmm mmm mmm tmmm Divorce Mill wmmm tmmm mmm WmmM mi ta 'at mi The Heirs Were Shocked Speechless When, Instead of Many Hospitals Now Guard Against Errors In Identifying Babies by Using Several Different Ways of Marking the (Newcomers Right After They Arrive. Having a $55,000 Estate to Divide, They Found That the Voice on the Phonograph Record Cut Them Off. Twenty per cent report that their husbands are drunkards, and fail to support them. Their wife is their meal ticket, who also supplies the shelter. Thirteen per cent report that their husbands continue to have girl friends, who not only share much of the family budget, but even strenuously object to the wife having one night out with the old man.

Although men are the direct cause of 75 per cent of all divorces, few men obtain divorces. In 1925 57,128 men obtained divorces as against 142,187 divorces granted to the wives. This Is the greatest number of divorces of record that has ever been granted to the husbands In one year. The causes recorded were: adultery, cruelty, desertion, drunkenness, 236, and combination of causes, 1,857. Women in their twenties, statistics show, marry for love.

If they are disillusioned, their second marriage is for money, and if the second husband leaves, they eventually marry for companionship, and in no few cases are their third marriages ideally happy. A recent survey shows that 61 per cent of the divorcees and widows re WHILE all Europe has been nursing a bad case of jitters due to echoes of war, America has been having her headache in the form of 238,000 privately fought, informally declared battles of record, and scores of the unrecorded ones. There was no Munich Pact, only a "cabinet" of grim-faced judges, who adroitly applied the panacea for all marital ills, that dissolved the formidable ''Until Death Do Us Part" contract. Such startling statistics brand America as the greatest divorce mart in the entire world. America, with its population of 130,000,000, granted 238,000 divorces in 1938, or one divorce for every 5.7 marriages.

Approximately one-third of these divorces were obtained by couples married 20 years or more. One-forth of the divorces were obtained by couples married less than two years. The seventh year is extremely unlucky. Records show that sixty per cent of the divorced couples have children. Are American women desirable mates? Are they more fickle, or has Ta STots Talked About His After SoThey Can't Get Mixed Up He Was Dead II SUALLY, when a rich man's will is read most of the I talking is done by expectant heirs whose dream castles have collapsed.

But Ian Baratinsky of Warsaw, Poland, outfoxed his heirs. When Baratinsky's two surviving cousins and a great niece met in a lawyer's office to hear their relative's will they were startled to see a phonograph in the center of the room. Perhaps the Blue Danube Waltz, one of the deceased's favorite pieces, was to be played before the will was read. A trifle unusual, but then the old bachelor had been eccentric. A pompous lawyer came from an adjoining office.

He looked at his wristwatch. "It is now three o'clock," he the recent economic crisis left in its wake a wrecked marital machine with its chaotic aftermath These are the questions and countless more that the 15,000,000 eligible American bachelors are asking. From a questionnaire sent out to ten thousand of the 1938 divorcees to determine the actual cause which prompted them to obtain a divorce, more than 50 per cent that their husbands be-c a neglectful. After the gay honeymoon fade into the cold gray dawn of realities, and the old ham and egg routine in a rose-trel-lised cottage, or a two-roomed flat wears thin, the af-fections of the sleek young husband begin to lessen; he forgets little niceties which are important to the i mental young wife. He fails to arise in time to eat the delicious, hot breakfast which she has marry while 78 per cent of the widowers and divorced men remarry.

Man's first venture into the tur-b 1 seas of matrimony, the divorcees said, is usually for beauty and physical attraction. His second venture is prompted by his natural craving for a housekeeper or for companionship. The survey reported that no divorces were granted in South Carolina during 1931. The following are the only legal causes for divorce, and the respective States to which they apply: Adultery, cruelty, and abandon-ment (desertion), for varying periods, are grounds for divorce in all States save South Carolina, where all laws permitting divorce were re-' pealed in 1878. Absolute divorces are granted in the District of Columbia and the State of New York for adultery only, although a marriage may be said.

No one disputed him. Across the street the clock on the town hall was striking the hour. "We shall hear Mr. Baratinsky's last will and testament now If you will be quiet, please." Then the lawyer dramatically stepped to the phono graph, and the amazed family group heard Baratinsky's voice: "Being of sound mind and in possession of all my facul ties, Ian Baratinsky, of Warsaw, Poland, on this twenty- fifth day of October, nineteen hundred and thirty-eight, hereby swear and affirm that this is my last will and testament, and that I wish to dispose of my property, both real and personal, as follows." Then Baratinsky went through the provisions of the will. Following Baratinsky's "signature" of the will, the voices of four friends testified that they had heard Baratinsky dictate the will.

The heirs were shocked speechless by the spoken testa ment. Not only was it unusual but, to their dismay, they inherited nothing. The $55,000 estate, including a four- The Courts of the United States Granted $38,000 Divorces in 1938 One for Every 5.7 Marriages. Uncle Sam Spent a Lot of Time and Money Running His Divorce Mill. story house in a good location, and bonds, common stocks and bank accounts, were all bequeathed to Miss Eliza Kol- chowska, daughter of Madame Kolchowska, a Polish opera singer who died about 15 years ago.

Baratinsky explained in his phonograph-record will that although he had never met Madame Kolchowska her recordings had given him so much pleasure and enjoyment that he wished to show his gratitude by bequeathing this legacy upon her surviving daughter. Neither had he met the daughter. The disappointed cousins and great-niece left the law yer's office in a huff. They engaged a leading Warsaw lawyer to prove that a spoken testament is null and void. so painstakingly prepared for him, much less to kiss her good-bye before leaving for the office; he frequently fails to telephone her when he will be late for dinner.

He forgets her allowance; forgets her birthday and frequently forgets to keep a date with her, but the greatest pain is his complete eclipse of memory at their first anniversary. The young bride, who has married "the only man" for real love, faces facts squarely. She discovers much too late to avoid a broken heart that her "ideal," the suave, dashing young suitor, who rushed her with flowers, candy and gracious attention is after all just plain flesh and blood and a selfish bore. In tears she rushes home to mother's arms. The young husband's re-action is shocking.

He thinks she is putting on an act getting temperamental. To him it's all a lot of nonsense. The young husband resents his wife's attitude and rushes for refuge to his favorite club or for sympathy into some other woman's arms. Ten per cent of the divorcees report that after due consideration they have discovered, but not too late, that they have married the wrong man. As soon as the divorce has been granted, they intend to marry their "soul-mate" without whom, life Itself would not be worth the living.

dissolved in New York on grounds of absence for five successive years, when proof is given of diligent but unavailing search. Both areas grant limited divorce for qruelty and abandonment. Drunkenness or addiction to drugs is listed in all States except Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont and Virginia, although the habit must have been contracted after the marriage in Oregon, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Neglect to provide is set forth in all States except Arkansas, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia. In Kansas, Ohio and Oklahoma such suits are brought under the charge of gross neglect of duty.

Imprisonment is given as a cause in all States except District of Columbia, Florida, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island. These six causes; adultery, cruelty, abandonment, drunkenness, neglect to provide and felony or conviction alone or In combinations accounted for 91 per cent of the divorces granted in 1938. Against their arguments, stand the statements of the four witnesses to the strange testament, and the word of the manager of the phonograph company, all of whom say that the unusual will was Baratinsky's own idea and that the MOTHER NATURE might save everybody a lot of trouble if she made new babies look not quite so much alike. Proud parents naturally insist on taking their own baby home from the hospital and not someone else's brat, yet there occasionally have been unhappy times when some mother was given the wrong baby or thought she was. But such baby mix-ups at hospitals can't happen any more, say medical assistants to the "stork" In a recent bulletin of the American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Maybe the headaches caused by such famous baby mix-ups as the Watkins-Bamberger case in Chicago several years ago have made hospitals more careful. In that "scrambled-baby" episode, as many readers will recall, the two mothers, Mrs. William Watkins and Mrs. Charles E. Bamberger, shared the same hospital ro6m.

Each gave birth to a boy baby. Several days later each went home with what she fondly believed was her own little son. But, when the Watkins baby had his bath there was much ado about something in the Watkins household. Plastered in the middle of the little fellow's back was a tag that read "Bamberger." Getting the Bambergers on the telephone, Daddy Watkins learned that their young hopeful was labelled "Watkins." The four excited parents went into a huddle. They weren't willing merely to accept the simple explanation that the hospital labels were right and that in the excitement each mother had come away with the other mother's baby.

Someone at the hospital had slipped up. The question was whether the babies had been marked wrong and yet given to the right mothers or whether some nurse had failed to check the tags and see that each baby went to the right home. The hospital certainly was "on the spot." Nurses, doctors and the mothers scanned the baby faces. No one could tell which was which. Mother instinct failed to come to the assistance of Mrs.

Bamberger and Mrs. Watkins and help each to recognize her own child. Then started a long siege of swapping babies back and forth. Finally the upset mothers decided they might as well follow the hospital markings and be done with it. That was several years ago and, so far as is known, everyone still is satisfied with the arrangement.

Another mixed-up baby case took even longer to decide. Mrs. John C. Garner and Mrs. Daniel Pittman of Atlanta, Georgia, got their baby girls mixed up in the hospital nearly 20 years ago.

The job of unscrambling these infants was taken to a judge who finally ruled that each mother should keep one of the girls until the child grew to be 17 years old. Then the daughters themselves were to choose their parents. What would have happened if both girls had believed they belonged to one set of parents and neither to the other set never was brought to a test. The Garner's temporary daughter died. The other one, Louise Madeline Pittman, surprised everyone by deciding, when the time came, that she really was the Garner baby and had been living with the wrong couple all those years.

But later she decided to divide her time between the Garners and the Pittmans and so keep from hurting anyone's feelings. Nowadays, according to information in the bulletin, such baby mix-ups couldn't happen. Most hospitals keep track of each infant's identity in at least two different ways, thus using not just one "ounce" of prevention, but two, for scrambled-baby trouble. After being checked and double-checked, the new baby may be as full of tags as a much-traveled piece of baggage, but he's sure to leave the hospital with his own mamma. Still, the most important marks don't go on baby at all, but are left on the hospital records.

These are baby's own tiny palm and finger prints. Some doctors use the print of baby's foot instead, but many medical men agree with scientific detectives that there is nothing like a good set of fingerprints to help keep tab on who's who even among babies. So the tiny whorls and loops of the baby fingers, forming a new pattern that never will change, are printed on a card beside the larger ones of his mother. No matter how scrambled this infant gets, those inky marks will serve as the last word in any squabble about his identity. But putting a mark right on the little dimpled darling, or squalling brat, serves as so much more insurance against mistakes.

Several up-to-date and fool-proof ways of marking the new baby are listed in the bulletin. He may have his name right on his skin in beautiful sun-tanned letters. The letters are cut like a stencil a strip of The tape is put on the baby's back and a sunlamp allowed to shine through the letter-shaped hobs until the skin is tanned. This doesn't hurt the baby and will stay on for a couple of weeks or more. Easier for quick identification, when there isn't time to look at backs, is a string of beads around the baby's neck.

Each bead has a letter on it. When Mrs. Jones or Mrs. Cadwalader comes to the hospital, a string of beads is made up spelling the name "Jones" or "Cadwalader." As soon as either baby arrives, the proper bead string is checked by the doctor to be sure it is right and fastened around the little neck in the maternity delivery room. testament was "spoken" and "signed" in due form.

"Mr. Baratinsky was a great admirer of Madame Kol- chowska's talent," the manager of the phonograph store said. "I have often heard him say that he had only heard her sing once on the stage, many years ago, but that he could never forget her voice and her personality. He would pay high prices for old records of her songs, of which only six have been published. He was an eccentric character, but not abnormal.

I do not think it surprising that he bequeathed a large part of his fortune to the daughter of the artist who gave him so much delight and enjoyment." Now the best legal talent in Warsaw is fighting over Two Sisters the question whether a will is valid if it has not been writ ten down and signed, but recorded on a phonograph record in the presence of witnesses. There is no question that the voice on the record is that of Baratinsky. Who Grew Into Brothers If the spoken will is ruled legal, It Is likely that there will be a wave of "talking-machine wills" and some are even suggesting that the next step will be sound movies of aged men and women, a la newsreel, saying how much Willie and how much Mary are to get in the diwy of the family fortune. If the court accepts the Baratinsky will as valid, a prece dent will be established, for this is the first time in Europe's history that a phonograph will has been offered for probate. An American holds the distinction of using a phono graph to preach his own funeral sermon ten years ago.

When the Reverend "Golightly" Morrill, author, clergyman and globe-trotter, died in San Diego, California, friends and They advised a change of scene for the sake of the troubled children, so the girls were put into an art school at Maidstone but dressed as boys. Another recommendation of the medical men was that Marjorie be sent to a London hospital to find out what was wrong. The answer that the hospital gave after a long period of treatment was enough to startle every inhabitant of the village of Great Yarmouth, which it promptly did. Marjorie was no longer a girl. The doctors had discovered that a great biological change had been going on ever since her voice gave her such distress.

Marjorie was now called Mark and when "he" visited his schoolmates they were amazed at a tall youth of 17 who wore a neat blue suit and smoked a pipe. With "him" was Daisy, who is now called David, also GREAT YARMOUTH, England. FOUR years ago, Marjorie and Daisy Ferrow, of Middlegate Street, were as pretty a pair of sisters as anyone could find in this quaint English village. They played with dolls, were adept at cooking and needlework and so bright in school that they won scholarships. As far as anyone could see they looked very much like their feminine schoolmates.

They led normal, girlish lives until Marjorie was 13 years old. Then she noticed that her voice was cracking just like those of the neighbor boys her age. It was getting deeper, too, and losing much of its soprano quality. The boys all noticed it and soon even the townsfolk were looking at her a little queerly. Marjorie was much disturbed.

She left school and no amount of urging could persuade her to return. She kept former parishioners in large numbers watched for announcement of the funeral services. Assembling for the funeral, they were surprised when a phonograph was brought into the room and placed on a stand near the cof fin. One of the attendants started the phonograph going. From the horn came the voice of Morrill himself.

It was an uncanny experience for the mourners to hear the voice of the dead man come floating from the phono The Citizens of Great Yarmouth Are Puzzled Over the Great Change in the Ferrow "Sisters," graph horn, over the casket. The dead man was being as spectacular in death as he had been In life. A short time before his death he had preached his own funeral sermon into a recorder, with the request that the record be played over his bier. The address itself was unusual It was couched In a light vein. It spoke a message of courage and faith.

The to the house and avoided all her schoolmates who wondered what had happened to her. Her parents were puzzled but thought things would right themselves very soon and Marjorie would go on being 'the girl she had been. But when Daisy's voice too, began doing the same strange antics when she reached 13, her folks were alarmed. Everyone was talking about what was happening to the Ferrow girls so doctors were consulted. Reverend "Golightly" Morrill, when he spoke his dying words into the wax record, was not afraid of the journey dressed in masculine attire.

David told how "he" was soon to enter the same hospital for similar treatment which would make the two sisters brothers. Both seemed glad they were to spend the rest of their lives as brothers. Mark said he always thought boys had a better time than girls and David said he agreed. With war now a reality and likely to continue for some time neither seemed to fear compulsory military service. he was about to take the longest and most mysterious journey of a life given to wandering, over the far spaces of the earth.

1310, by American Weekly, Inc. Great Britain Rights Reserved..