Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-01-21
FARGO AND DIVORCES
The Traffic Flourislless in North
Dakota. refs.

When the people or any OF these
Western towns get hold of tender
foot from the capitalistic East they
proceed industriouslX to-. I'LL him up" i,
with the wonders and~heauties of their
little commuhity.s So expert have they
become in making out a good case that
it is only by asking the same questions
to several mem 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 divorce centre.
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 public had really come to
believe it, when as q matter OF fact
there was no good basis for the notion
whatever. The judges, he declared,
had become very cautious. and there
We're not more people waiting here for
a dissolution of the bonds of matri-
mony than in a city of corresponding
size in the East.
A little later in the day another en-
thusiastic citizen was recounting the
sources of Fargo's business strength
and the channels through which money
came to the city. How about the di-
vorces," / asked. There now he
replied lis another thing that 1 am
glad you called my attention to. l be-
lieve our easy divorce laws bring into
this little city alone 100000 a year.
Several fashionable boarding-houses
are kept running by the divorce COL
Of taal
| business is of that kind. Every year
the synods and conferences and moral
reform associa lions go up to the Leg
islature and ask to have the laws
changed, but so far they have made no
great Roadway. There are too many
parties in interest who put up a stiff
| err fight on the other side. The law
| yers of the state profit from the pre-
| sent system, and so do the hotels and
| the retail shop-keepers. l do not look for
any change in the requirement OF three
months residence in the state which
| is the basis of our flourshing divorce
! business This is one of Fargo's very
considerable sources of revenue.
| In the same way the enthusiastic
| boomers paint everything in sight.
| The tornado bearing winds are refer
| red to only as showing the relief from
| summer heat which can be here OBJ
| tanned. The heavy mud which. except
| on the paved streets, cakes up bug
| gy tire with rim as wide as the mud
| guard on a fashionable carriage, is
deemed worthy of notice as showing
! the loamy quality of the soil and It's
tremendous richness. In the cyclone
| and the floods and the fires Fargo sees
| augures of a greater future, and is
especially DESTROYS that the Eastern
| visitor shall look at them in the same
way. although if he happens not to
| hear of them before reaching here he
| is likely for some time to remain in
| ignorance of these doingS of the
wonder working Providence. Fargo
never boasts needlessly of the calam-
tiles that bring blessings in their wake
But perhaps the boldest piece of ad-
| vertisng the city ever attempted was
the construction of horsecar line to
convey agents of Eastern investing
companies from the heart of the town
to the suburban properties, which in
the days of the boom We're being de-
veloped This line was supported by
voluntary contributions from public
spirited citizens. No one was expected
to drop a nickel except an occasional
visitor who from force of habit went
through that formality, but it is not
believed that the company was ever
mean enough to take from the car
driver the little change that he might
have picked up in that way. when
the boom was over. the car line Went
out of business and occasionally an
old rail is dug up in some paving oper-
atoms as a reminder of the city's form
) er ambitions. Fargo has no trolley
cars. and between here and Duluth,
: PSF miles away. there is not pace that
has a population sufficiently dense to
) support such an enterprise. by con-
: trast with eastern Massachusetts
; grdironed with eectric lines. this fac'
| shows as we'll as anything now mucf
room there is for the West to grow
But Fargo has regular line OF pus-
ses, doing a large business. wmcn are
: run upon a slightly different basis IRON
ordinary rapid transit scheme. ana s.
!. deserve a word of notice. North OAK