New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-10-01
have been circulated by professed friends as IL
they were paupers in need Of National pity
THE yFW DIvORCg CENTRE

Chicago NAV boast of her business supremacy
but it Is n fact that one Of her most important
branches of trade is being snatched away. we
refer to divorce. For many years chicago mas
stood first in the divorce industry. Other cl'ies
might surpass her in the annual business uoHe
in their financial clearinghouse. out Chlcaso
stood at the head in the business done IN V"e
matrimonial clearinghouse She was the hOilc
Of easy and rapid coniugal adjustment. feopie
went TO Chicago one and she made tnem WV
But the divorce centre seems to have moEeu
westward. like the course OF empire, ana 10 h"'o
settled in the new and booming State oil oouCh
Dakota, with tie greatest activity in the metIoP-
oils Of that commonwealth, Sioux Falls.
The advantages of South Dakota as divorce
resort only began to attract general puDhc at'eh-
ton year ago Divorce in the otate Is
reported 70 be easy and pleasant. Only rev
months residence are needed and there are
scarcely any disagreeable requirements. Inc
judges are said to be uniformly pleasant and cour-
teous. They strive to please. We are surprised
in reading Dakota newspapers and 81 boom htera-
ture' sent out by boards Of trade and similar
organizations in enterprising TO find no rel
erence TO the fact that the State leads IN
divorce business. In former days it was favorite
device TO present facts about the Territory In
new and startling forms. We would be told. for
instance, that Dakota was as large as the States
of Maine, New-HampShire. South Carolina, Ohio,
the British Isles and France; that if the surface
of Dakota could be cut up into a long strip
foot wide, it would reach 10 the nearest fixed
star and back again and leave an end Mapping
over the edge, down into space like a piece OF
red carpet from the upper window of Bowery
dealer that il the territory OF Dakota could
a1 would
leave the earth looking like half Of a round musk
melon after the seeds and other debris have been
removed. Again we heard that the wheat raised
in Dakota in one year if loaded in freight cars
would make q train reaching from Denver to New
York that il would require kettle four hundred
miles wide and three hundred miles high TO boil
the potato crop OF Dakota at ore time that the
babies born in Dakota during the past year, IL
they could be placed side by side in circle would
enclose space big enough % contain the State OF
Massachusetts, and that they would make noise
when they cried which could he heard two hun
dred miles and that it would require one thousand
three hundred and twenty-seyen barrels Of milk
every twenty-f four hours to feed them. But we
hear more Of these interesting and surprising facts
about the new divorce business. What chance
there is to say that more divorces were granted
in South Dakota during the past year than in
Kentucky Pennsylvania, Delaware, Germany and
Portugal that if thr people divorced in South
Dakota could be made to stand in a row and take
hold OF hands, the line would extend from the
Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean; that If
the ministers VINO married the couples divorced
in South Dakota during the past year could DE
stood up on end like pile of empty spools they
would reach to the moon, not 10 mention col
umu of justices Of the peace two hundred feet
! higher than the EfTel Tower. The Dakota
! boomers are becoming tame and efete.
The latest reports from Sioux Falls are that the
divorce business is simply phenomenal The ho-
tels have oyerfowcd with waiting applicants, and
many have rented dwellings and begun keeping
house for the necessary three months. Money Is
plentiful and times are good. The ministers are
being kept fairly busy in marrying many oil those
recently divorced to, let us hope, more congenlal
partncis But these statements are CLH; what
the country is waiting for are fancy statistics, rs,
for instance how high stack the wedding rings
of the couples divorced in one year would make.