FARGO’S DIVORCE INDUSTRY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XV, 11 April 1896, Page 416

FARGO’S DIVORCE INDUSTRY.

North Dakota has gained considerable notoriety throughout the United States for the ease with which divorces are secured within its borders. Fargo has more fame in this direction than any other town for various reasons. It is most easily reached and affords the pleasure-loving contingent greater opportunities than any city in the State except Grand Forks. Its hotels are new and up to date and there are numerous private boarding-houses that cater especially to those who are here to end their marital troubles. The modus operandi is simple. In nine cases out of ten the defendant in the suit is as willing that a decree should be secured as the plaintiff, and aids in every possible way by accepting service and employing a local legal light to rook after his interests. In such cases the decree is often secured within ten days after the ninetyday probation has expired. In fact it has sometimes occurred that the divorce was granted within ninety-one days after the applicant arrived in Fargo. In these cases, of course, personal service was secured, and there was no contest in the way of alimony. In cases of desertion, or in others, where the residence of the defendant is unknown, six weeks additional is required for the publication of summons. The attorney’s fee varies from /To to any higher amount with the trouble necessary to secure the decree, and the ability of the plaintiff to pay. The colony includes people in all walks of life. Even labouring men come here and work while establishing their residence. These are the exception, however. The seekers after single blessedness are, as a rule, well supplied with funds and able to pay liberally for what they got. Some distinguished people have been temporary residents of the State and are men and women in all walks of life, and titled foreigners are not an exception.

The divorce business has frequently been referred to as a North Dakota industry, and is really to be regarded as such. A canvass of the hotels and private boardinghouses shows that there are to-day about 150 members in the local divorce colony. This means from /'6oo to /1,000 a month for the hotel men of the city. It also means from /T.ooo to /2,000 for the local attorneys. In addition to these expenditures the stores receive directly, perhaps /400 a month in the way of divorce trade. The sentiment of the citizensis entirely in favour of the ‘ industry. ’ The matter is looked at purely from a business standpoint and is advocated on all sides. Another noticeable feature is the haste with which some of the plaintiffs again rush headlong into matrimony after having been granted a divorce. One case is on record where a trip was made directly from the Judge’s chambers to the license-room and return and the second marriage performed by the kindly court in fifteen minutes after the decree had been granted and before the ink used in signing the divorce papers had time to dry. Indeed the majority marry again within six months after being divorced. All kinds of schemes are worked to avoid publicity. Members of the colony often live here under assumed names and do everything possible to keep correspondents of Eastern papers from learning their history. To deceive their friends the contingent sometimes rent boxes in the Moorhead Postoffice across the river in Minnesota, so Eastern friends won’t know what they are doing out West.