The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-09-18
FARGO DIVORCED MILL.
SOURCE OF GREAT PROFIT TO THE
PEOPLE OF NORTH DAKOTA.


prohibition hut Get Drunk Them
selves Across the Minnesota Line.
Fargo On. ID Letter in Boston Transcript
When the people of any of these Western
towns get hold of 'tenderfoot' from the
capitalistic East, they proceed industrious
ly to ''fll him up with the wonders and
beauties of their little community. So eX-
pert have they become in making out a
good case that it is only by asking the
same questions to several men who are
looking at the matter from different points
Of view that anything like fair equation
of fact can be reached. For example, /
asked an old resident this morning If
Fargo was not quite a divorce center, and
he replied with considerable warmth that
this was one of the jokes of the Eastern
newspapers, which had been carried
around by the minstrel men until the pub
lie had really come to believe IT, when as
matter of fact there was no good basis
for the notion whatever. The judges, he
declared, had become very cautious and
there were not more people waiting here
for dissolution of the bonds of matri-
mony than in a city of corresponding size
in the East.
A little later in the day another enthusi-
astic citizen was recountng the source OF
Fargos business strength and the chau
nels through which money came to the
city. GLOW about the divorces" l asked.
There, now" ne replied lis another
thing that 1 am glad you called my at
tentiOn 10. l believe our easy divorce
laws bring into this little city alone $780,
600 a year. Several fashionable board
ing houses are kept running by the di-
vorce colony, and more or less of the no
tel business is of that kind Every year
the synods and conferences and moral
reform associations go up TO the legisla-
ture and ask to have the laws changed
but so far they have made no great head
way. There are too many parties in in
terest who put up a sitter fight on the
other side. The lawyers OF the state profit
from the present system and do the
hotels and the retail shop-keepers. 1 do
not look for any change in the require
ment of three months residence in the
state, which is the basis of our flourish
ing divorce business. This is one of Far
COS very considerable sources of reve-
nue." q
Fargo has a regular line of buses, doing
a large business, which are run upon
slightly different basis from ordinary rap
id-transt schemes, and so deserve a word
of notice North Dakota, by a clause of
the constitution, adopted at the time the.
state came into the union, has prohibition.
Different parts of the state carry out the
law in various ways. but here in Fargo
public sentiment compels the rigid en-
forcement of the prohibitory law while
in Moorhead, across the Red River of the
North, in the state of Minnesota, they
have high license. The result is that
. ~
forty-four saloons, each paying the mini
mum license fee allowed in the state
which is $3.50, and the saloon keepers run
a line of free buses, known as 'iag
wagons" between the two towns These
may be seen moving slowly about the
streets of Fargo all day and evening gath
ering passengers, and When a. CONVEYANCE
gets filled the horses are driven al a good
speed to the door of the saloon providing
the accommodation. There is no provision
against dead-head passengers except the
profanity of The drivers, which is liable
to break loose upon those habitual pill
grims who do not prove profitable Gus
toners "on the other side For some
reason non-bibulous travellers between the
two towns do not pattonize the bus line
by daylight, as they might perhaps do by
tipping" the driver. When people have
TO go 80 far they naturally fill up well at
their destination and hence presence in
the vehicle has come to be regarded by a
mans friends and neighbors as a declara-
ton of his intention TO go ION a lag
Moorhead is quite a sight. The saloons
are right along in row, and about one
door in every four is a grocery store, pro-
vision market, or some ordinary place of
merchandising. The Mayors saloon is
said to be one of the best IN town.
In larger way, prohibition is satisfac-
tory to North Dakota, and a measure for
10 Ilxr -
vote. The real reaeon-for this is found
in a peculiar phase of the labor problem
here observable. The Eastern farmer
with his variety of crops finds employ
ment for certain amount of help through
out the summer season with reasona bic
steadness. Here, with one great crop
which must be attended to at most within
the range of a few weeks, an army of Ia
borers have to be temporarily employed
This demand has created the supply and
every spring hundreds of harvest hands
start forth from ST. Louis and even points
farther South and gather the early ma
turing crops of that latitude then move
northward as the crops ripen. like a flock
of birds, and when the last range Of fields
have been harvested go into the woods
about Lake Superior to get out the lum-
Der. In the latter part of the winter they
move Southwark again, but each year
get around to North Dakota at about this
ttHe WOULD not ike TO mdlign these
Industrious gentlmemen, but conservative
people here speak of them as "the tough
est gang of hobOs on the face of The
earth Now in the old territorial re giine
when the saloon was within reach of the
farms, every rainy day would demoraize
this force of temporary help The crop
would be half harvested, but to pass away
the idle day the men, would go to the sa-
Icon, and for the next two or three fair
days there would likewise be cessatio
of field operations. Thousands of dollars
have been lost by the farmers in this way,
and. as the prohibition movement prom
Used to drive out the local rumshop, It was
welcomed, and to-day constitutional proli-
bition finds among its strong est supporters
farmers who themselves get drunk every
time they come to town. With them pro-
hibitlon is a local issue, as Hancock Gaid
of the tariff.
Unless actually on the ground. It is
hard to realize what an extraordinary
movement is this migration of harvest
no Vtxs-lp mi