Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1899-04-21
NEARING THE END.
Divorces Have Come Into the State q.
aaLively Step Before the Time
Limit is Up.
Special Representative of a Eastern
Paper Tells What He Has Dis
covered in Fargo.
Opinion of Divorce Attorneys and Others
Quoted With Regard to the Change
of the Law.

The Chicago Tribune has had q spe-
cial representative at Fargo for the
past few days observing things in the
divorce line, as the limit for taking up
residence in ..le state vas nearing the
end. After speaking of the incoming
of the Divorces the special writer says:
The hurried immigration has had its
ludicrous features. A man from New
Jersey tarried in Moorhead, Mimi, ut
the eleventh hour and waxed convivial
in the saloons Of what is known as the
Jag annex of Fargo. The tolling
Of the town clock at midnight brought
him to n recollection of his purposes in
North Dakota courts, and in a wild
sprint across the bridge he left Mime
sofa soil and landed in Dakota as the
law went into effect.
The colony at Fargo, with additions
from the immigration, is estimated to
number about $50. DEGREES are being
issued in the courts of the Third judi
cial district at the rate of three q day.
The colony at Mandan, across, the river
from Bismarck, is nearly as large, ow-
ing to the favorable complexion Of the
courts, and the Divorces have f1ocked
to Grand Forks and jamestown.
The LaMoure amendment became
operative on April /, revoking the nine
ty day law provision of the old law and
establishing the one year provision of
most states. AS soon as North Dako-
ia attorneys saw that the amendment
was going through they kept the wires
hot all over the country and prodded
up their eastern connections with the
result that the seekers after divorce
packed their grips and began the race
= across the country. The seeker is not
preceded by a press agent and does
not come into town with a brass band.
He or she does not shout his or her
intention from the h0usetops. Well
dressed strangers simply slid off
through trains at Fargo, registered Mt
the Metropole or the Waldorf, or
hunted up Mrs. Swartz's boarding
house and were found yawning and
smoking in the hotel lobbies.
Such quiet additions to the colonies
and the conservative admissions of the
attorneys We're all that indicated the
rush for North Dakota.
These attorneys have developed a
safe conservatism since the visit of a
woman reporter from New York. She,
in the character of an divorce, trapped
a couple of well known lawyers into
admissions and various promises that
were unpleasantly vivid for general
circulation, and were intended for pri-
waite consumption. among the divorce
colony. Attorneys who were not
trapped chuckle over the discontinue
of their colleagues, and the town still
talks about it.
One-half of the business interests of
Fargo regret the new order of things
with the deep regret of men whose
pocketbooks have been materially
affected. The rest of the state blames
Fargo, and Fargo blames the reporter
and Attorney Miller. Attorneys in
other parts Of the state affirm that II
Fargo could have been O little conser
svative and hadn't forced the matter
into such publicity the golden eggs
might continue to be laid by the goose
that has been killed.
Fargo, they say, should have kept
better control over it's riotous visitors
and not permitted them to go across
the river to Moorhead in Minnesota
and become convivial, until the Gus.
todian Of the public morality had tc
rise up and take the matter in hand
''The attorneys may talk about divorce
cases being only incidents to theil
practice" said L. Guthrie Of Grand
Forks, known as the founder Of Guth
rie, o. T., and as one of the most sue
cessful divorce attorneys in that ter
ritory and in North Dakota, 'but it was