The Nezperce herald. (Nezperce, Idaho) 1900-1957, 1909-02-18

Of her manufactures II has made capl
falists out Of her lawyers and wealth,
mel out OF her hotel keepers. IL hal
made Of a struggling prairie town call
ed Sioux Falls, a thriving little cit
with big hotels. handsome residences
stores filed with Paris importatIons
and legal emporiums IN every nook and
corner. Sioux Falls Is city Of fifteeI
thousand inhabitants, situated In Min
nehaha county, In the southeastern
part Of South Dakota. II is the me
tropolis Of the haIf-grown State and ii
the JobbIng center Of territory as
large as the State OF New York. II has
hotel that would do credit 70 q city
three times It's size-built 10 aecommo-
date divorce seekers. From 100 TO 800
men and women are always present 10
Sioux Falls waiting waiting and
spending. They leave from 100000 TO
100000 a year in the city and they
furnish its permanent citizens with a
nerer-failing source Of interest and re-
mark. Go where you viii IN Sioux
Falls. talk with whom you viii. your
eyes viii eventually light upon some
handsome. rather gubdued looking WON
an. in garments which proclaim the
fact that she has heen transplanted
from somewhere nearer Paris. and your
host. dropping the main subject viii
say eagerly: Been living here since
January. She bought $1,000 house
last month and you ought 70 see the
livery her servants weari She's a d.
yorsay
From East and West from Canada
and foreign lands. the diyorsays come
Rich and poor. some Of them bearing
names known all over the world. they
slip quietly into the city to live and
spend money and amuse themselves
and wait. Lovely women who have
never known how the other 999-I00ths
OF the world live. come to Sioux Falls
and try to pretend 1t is Fifth avenue
MIllIonaires whose money has failed TO
move eastern justice fret away their
six months OF enforced exile in trying
10 buy everything from comfort to
haste. Wives bearing famous names
come TO town to trade them for names
not 50 famous. but borne by more at
tractive men.
There is very popular delusion 10
the effect that South Dakota conducts
its divorce business on the nIckel-in-the-
slot OF the Saturday bargain-sale plan;
that signed DEGREES made out In blank
are stacked high on the counters Of ev-
cry court house and that train seized
ules to the county seats are so arrang-
ed as TO give visitors an hour for din
ner. ten minutes for divorce and fif-
teen minutes to get married again and
buy a return ticket Nothing could be
farther from the truth. 1t takes time
to ret divorce in South Dakota. just
as 1t does everywhere else except in
Chicago II takes from six months to
nine months. varying with the ability
II the applicant TO produce feeling or
haste IN the various courts
When the South Dakota constitution
VAS completed In 1889 it was decided
o encourage immigration as much as
,ossible. and with this in view il was
iecreed that any one living six months :
h the State should be entitled to cifi-
enship. Then the divorce laws OF the
lew state were drawn up-a little
trfcter than IN most States with the
Exception OF the fact that proceedings
rere not required to be made public. I
suddenly il was discovered that six /
months residence law. closed court I
nd an isolated part Of the country. J
7hen fused together, made compound /
-hich would separate hearts. hands and +
ONES without pain. publicity or scars 5
( any kind All unwittingly the deed l
,as done. and when the maritally \
lessed portion of the country realized h
he glorious opportunity. the malcon- r
snts arose as one man and one woman h
nd took the first train for South Da- a
ota. Il
The divorsays are required during 1
le process OF separation to swear that j.
icy are permanent residents of the
tate. Still, as one lawyer dryiy put =
.sThey are their own masters Di- Il
,rce evidently renders the health very al
lsceptible to the rigors Of South a:
akota climate. for. while an undivorca W
person can flourish In the State al W
ost indefinitely. the divorsay as rule "
gins to develop alarming symptoms al
nostalgia. ennui and other diseases h,
hlch require change of climate with NJ
twenty-four hours after the decree
made out Some Of the most eSreful II
least grateful make a point OF main co
lining their legal residence In the vi
ate for some years. however. and oc- Oh
sionally come back to vote az the co
hool elections Of
AS matter OF fact Sioux Falls is on
ting pretty tired OF the divorce bush he
20 anyway. There was time when
was the pride Of the city. and prac- DIR
ally the only money seen in that VIZ
nd-swept section was brought there In
divorsays and freckled pasts and Ne
angied futures. They were welcome ba
IN. But the city has grown up in the an
81 few years. There are other build sa'