The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-01-26

details of the many prominent divorce
cases in the past, which made Sioux
Falls famous-or infamous. To prove
what / want to, ii is only necessary
for me to show what Sioux Falls was
five years ago, what II is to-day, and
what has killed 1t; for dead II now is.
The population of Sioux Falls as CIV
en- out by the statisticians is 10000. But
this seems an impossibility, even
counting in the outlying suburbs, for
one can easily walk over the whole
town in a mornings stroll But in this
population, a circle within circle, yet
as distinct as the oil that floats on the
top of the water, is another population,
"a colony of men and women who
fit in amidst these people, live their
short period of enforced exile among
them, and then, like a gust of fetid
wind, fit out again, leaving no trace
of their presence except, perhaps, a bad
flavor in the mouths of the more pious
inhabitants, a few more dollars in the
pockets of the storekeepers and hotel
proprietors and some hundreds in the
hands of the corrupt lawyers who serve
and encourage them.
These men and women for a time
kept the town alive; yet ultimately
they proved its ruin. The coming of
these men and women was like an i'm
migration of lepers; they formed a dis
llIlCI Grass dIilOI6 IiiClhSCiNCSs W
touch them was pollution. To the wo-
men no social courtesy was extended.
no friendship cultivated, no kind word
spoken; were they to live for years In
that town, the mere fact of their hav-
ing once belonged to tine colony" os-
tracised them completely. The men
were more favorably received; they
were encouraged by some of the west
ern girls. but were mathematical by
the men-except such as made a trade
OF this detestable sale of indulgences.
What has given this divorce traffic so
bad a name has been the shameful and
devious ways the candidates have re-
sorted to, aided and abetted by the
men of law, and the fragrant behavior
which many INDUCED in. Whether they
felt that, being so far from home. no
one would know them and they could
do as they pleased. or their own in
nate depravity saw no crime in their
Illicit relations-be that as Ii may.
they were vile. and tainted the whole
colony. They stigmatized every man
and woman going to Dakota for a di-
vorce as being such as they We're; and
some who went there from the most
legitimate reasons and with the purest
motives were thus made 10 suffer UNI
told torments.
These colonists divided themselves
into three distinct classes: those who
nNed In the notes. those In the DOaru-
ing houses. and those hiring cottages.
The first were loose In their morals
and bold I'm their manners. They be-
came the boon companions of the bach
elors of the town, and generally man
aged to spend their six months exile
very pleasantly. driving and riding on
the prairies, and playing cards and
giving wire parties in their rooms in
the evenings, with their lawyer and his
particular chums.
The second were the respectable wo-
men. who led the lives OF nuns, and
never left the bosom of the family with
which they were residing.
The third were the men and women,
who went to South Dakota with their
lovers, hired a furnished cottage. and
lived together IN open defiance OF God
commandment. - meanwhile invoking
mans law to unloose the sacred bonds
which bound them 10 the absent. and
thus leave them at liberty to legalize
the unholy bonds which united them TO
a new lovea-. The man Goodwin. who
was shot by the bookmaker in the Per-
cIval apartment house about three
years ago. had just returned from a