‘‘Mrs. Bingham said her husband maintains an attitude of superiority and
considers her incapable of discussing questions of public affairs.â€
So charged Mrs. Hiram Bingham in a divorce suit against her husband, the explorer, writer and former senator from Connecticut.
This allegation of marital condescension was front-page news on Saturday, March 27, 1937, in the European edition of The New York Herald Tribune, now The International Herald Tribune, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary. It was a tiny two-paragraph item tucked in the bottom right-hand corner of the page.
Back then, human interest often came in small doses, sitting incongruously amid the thunder of strikes, embargoes, plane crashes, ‘‘grave issues'' and prosecutions. Ruthlessly edited, pruned to their essence, the items were often elegant and poignant and sometimes focused on the bizarre. At some point in the evolution of newspapers, this front-page feature died or morphed into other forms.
Back to March 27, 1937: To the left of the Bingham split-up lies the headline ‘‘Editor Murdered in Newspaper Feud.'' Five paragraphs tell of the demise of Claude L. McCracken, editor of The Modern County Mail in Alturas, Calif. While dining in his home, he was shot by Harry French, son of Gertrude French, editor of The Alturas Plaindealer, the article said.
Although the two papers had been battling for two years over minor issues, few were aware of the intensity of the bitterness between between their editors.
Up in the middle of the page a few paragraphs told of Minerva (Mother) Hartman, 104, under the headline ‘‘Nurse of 4 Wars Burned to Death.''
Mother Hartman, who was on the scene in ‘‘the Indian, Civil, Crimean and Spanish-American'' wars, died in a fire at her ‘‘house on stilts'' in Colma, Calif. The house was put on stilts as a compromise when Mother Hartman refused to make way for a highway.
‘‘I won't move just to let a lot of old buzz wagons go by,'' she was quoted as saying.
But Mother Hartman's independent streak went only so far.
Veteran of countless war adventures, the nurse declared her philosophy was that women should stay home and read the Bible.
And so it went on March 27, 1937.
Front page from March 27, 1937.
