Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1905-11-13
WHERE Is PAUL ORTIZ?

WHERE is PAUL ORTIZ?
Story Of an Old Time Tribune Printer
Who Disappeared Seven Years Ago,
and Whose Wife, supposina Him
Dead, Seeks to Collect His Insurance.
The following letter from Washing
ton City will interest Tribune readers
who may remember Paul P. Orth, a
printer who worked on this paper
about eighteen years ago:
Old timers in Bismarck will remem-
Der Paul P. Orth, who used to work
on the Tribune and at one, time pub
lished weekly paper in Mcintosh
county. Since leaving Bismarck years
ago with his family Orth has had a
great variety Of experiences in differ
ent parts of the country, being some
what of a rover and cratic in tempera-
ment. He was employed for some
years in the government printing Of
flee and was there known as a swift
and a good printer. He had almost
completed course of medicine in a
Washington night college and was
enthusiastic over the profession he
expected to adopt. A change in ad-
ministration landed him outside the
government service, and he gave up
his medical studies and became a
wanderer. He established weekly
newspapers and job printing shops in
Delaware, Nebraska and Arkansas,
none OF them proving profitable, and
returned penniless to Washington in
1898. During that summer he worked
In various printing Offices here, but
did not secure steady employment and
became respondent. Strange notions
possessed him and he changed into a
different man. Many of his actions
bordered on insanity. The Spanish
war then in progress fred his brain
with desire to enlist. He was once
Fort Lincoln soldier. 1T brought him
back to the stirring Indian campaigns.
A good wife and three young children
depended upon him for support. Al
ways a devoted father and provider,
he would break away, sever the family
ties, leave them to shift for themselves
as it were, and he to join Uncle Sans
forces in Cuba as private soldier and
receive a private soldiers pittance.
Ortiz was crazy at the time without
doubt. No man in his right mind
could have acted thus. Whether he
enlisted in the army or buried his
identity in some strange land, or
whether he was killed or wounded or
confined in lunatic asylum is beyond
my reasoning. He disappeared one
Sunday in August seven years ago as
completely as if the earth had opened
and swallowed him.
AT the same time a letter was speed
ing his way freighted with good news.
3
But 1t came too late. 1t contained an
appointment to the government print
ing Office, a position he tried hard to
regain and had given up at the
eleventh hon F. -
! q happened to be one Of the last
persons to see him or speak with him
that day, and though he talked with
great earnestness never dreamed he
would attempt to carry out hi; wild
plans. He must have committed
suicide. but no trace Of the body has
ever been found. N! III
Now Mrs. Orth seeks to recover on
a $1,000 life insurance policy Id the
National Union, a fraternal society.
Payments on, the policy have been kept
up by friends, Mrs Orth being unable
to pay the assessments. nj
Paul Orth. Jr.. nov strapping
Young man, ID In the United States
navy cruising IN West indian waters.
He is the only son. IA daughter Ii en-
ployed In the government printing
ONCE and another. the youngest, 10 q
high school student.
The following IL taken from today's
Post: Because she has not heard
from her husband for more than seven
years, the time limit set BY tho dis
trict Gods. Mrs. Caroline r. Orth ds.
sires to collect the Insurance al his