The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, November 7, 1928, Page 8

ie et SAA ERT RAE ERE Ni RAN AB NEO Shite epee eins PEIN Ne See mn In the night clubs on the outskirts of the city . the Reno “‘colonists” may dance, be amused. By MAX STERN ONG live the divorce evil! This is the toast of Reno, out-Parising Paris in a marriage-and-divorce boom that means millions, fame, life and glitter to a city that otherwise would be a moribund little silver town. There being no ill wind but blows some city good, the “metropolis” of the Sagebrush State has become, within a short year, the nation’s heart-capital, city of heart-breaks and heart-mending, mecca for the mar- tiage-weary and sanitorium for matrimonial con- valescents. High—but far from dry— upon the sagebrush plateau of northwest Nevada, this little frontier city has become like a fashionable European water- ing place, its spacious hostel- ries peopled with smart and wealthy pilgrims from the four corners of the nation. \ Their business of sloughing off matrimony in fact so re- sembles the healing processes of a Deauville or a Karlsbad that the natives here call it “taking the cure.” Faced with hard times as the result of the slump in mining, Nevada's legislature met a year from last March North Virginia Street and amended its divorce law, . is the Broadway already a liberal one, so that a of prosperous Reno. residence of three months, in- stead of the former six, within the state, and one decree would provide final and com- ed severance of the nuptial not. About the same time, the California legislature, alarmed over the increasing number of elopements, passed what it called the “Gin Marriage The popular Law,” forcing each would-| promenade over eloping couple to publish the the Truckee banns three days in advance river. of marriage. These two events spelled a F sudden place in the sun for Reno. From California, across the line, came elopers for quick and silent marriage. From America-at-large came the marriage-weary for quick and silent ivorce. Immediately, Reno perked up and assumed the air of a bustling pleasure resort. The little mining an cattle center achieved its new destiny and became the “Paris of America.” Today, the Reno divorce-and-marriage mill is a $5,000,000- a-year industry. The entire population of Nevada is only 70,000, but Washoe county, of which Reno is county seat, has grown under the spell of this new industry to half of the state’s population. ” Tts hotels are packed, but chiefly has prosperity descended upon the two big centers of the divorce colony—the Riverside on the Truckee river, and the Golden, the downtown inn. Both of these are owned by Nevada's financial king and Republican “boss,” George B. Wingfield, former prospector, who owes much of his wealth to Cupid and his nemesis. ‘ORE than 2000 men and women go through the Reno M faneres, mill each year. About the same number go through the marriage mill. The record for the last six months shows a neck-and-neck race between Cupid and his spaeaney There were 1275 marriages and 1013 divorces. e figures include the month of marriage bells, and in June all records were shattered when 429 cee, went, under the bower. Many of these were fugitives from California's “gin marriage law,” but many more were men or women of the livorce colony. It is estimated, that more than 10 per cent of the “patients” taking the “cure” bring their own solaces with them. Out of the 2000 divorced, more than 200 take a complete cure, and leave to the tinkle of new wedding bells. With so much cardiac business at hand, Reno has organized for efficiency and for the comfort of he transient guests. In the courthouse sits Prigaste Judge George A. Bartlett, figura- pine une with his ever-sharp pruning knife. A philosopher- he, with a humorous, common-tense view of Bae mh ial that of that other western judge, Ben Lit aed cal live harmoniously ee as man and whee get a divorce—if ae re sensible,” says Judge Baalet, the Ede) judge.” “If they're foolish, they live on ae next oe is the office of the “marryin’ judge,” losophic, equally psommneriating a equally is the game of of a successful operation. More thee en B rtlett’s divorce cases are heard the sai ‘Aadwithia 10 are in as trustified. Plc SP have formed under the County Bar Association a sort A OUTTA AH ute at Reno Two Thousand Matrimonial Invalids Now Crowd the Sagebrush Metropolis Waiting for the New Quick Divorces, Spending Over $5,000,000 a Year And Bringing the State of Nevada Since Gold Rush Days The present Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr. met her spouse in Reno. of “union.” They have set the minimum aieeioti aval: vorce at $250. There is no maximum price, but the high priced “‘union” of attorneys has charged much as $25,000. Sevéral “scabs” will see you through a mall for $100. One of the biggest divorce lawyers is Mayor E. E. Roberts of Reno. Another is Sam Platt, Republican candidate for U. S. senator. While divorces come high, marriage prices are still reason- able. Justice Lonegebaugh will be satisfied with $5, and there are some preachers who'll give you benefit of clergy for $2. A honeymoon picture of Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr., and the wife he di- vorced in Reno. of the divorce colony. Of the 2000 “‘colonists” now in Reno, 1200 are women and 800 are men. If their mates elect to let the divorces go through uncontested they need live cnly three months in Nevada: If there's opposition, with com- plaint and counter complaint, the colonist must ‘do time” for perhaps a year. At any rate, idle men and women must have amusement. To this end they have organized a social club called “The Colony Club.” With the object of furnishing recreation and amusement for the colonists, the club has employed a secretary whose ness it is to arrange dinner parties, riding and auto trp to 10 Caron City, Lake Tahoe and other centers of interest, golf and tennis tournaments, and night diversions. The club is ae as and charges only $10 initiation fee. colonists come from all over the country and some oe come from Europe. California, especially "Lrcllywood. rishes the greatest number and the most famous., New vt comes next New Jersey third. lany and glittering are the names that find their way into Reno’s papers as guests at the Riverside, aay the he Hane gowned matron and gilded clubman who alone along Truckee river when once she or he walked | happily arm-in-arm with husband or wife at Newport or Palm Beach. Many of the divorcees get their gowns direct from Paris. oe phe have te a Neriee “cure” would fill a small- ii social register, stil come, a atiange procession of the disillusioned to scatter their gold where the rough western natives have raked the soil and delved for years in search of it. Tt was at Minden, a little mountain town to the south of Reno, that America’s Sweetheart, Mary Pickford, took the Nevada Ja as the lawyers are highly organized, so are the members , “cure.” She was in Minden for a long time under the name of Mary Moore before it was known that she was Mary Pick- ford, divesting herself of Owen. Moore and preparing hereelf to become the bride of Douglas Fairbanks. » Reno's Judge Bartlett. . . . His divorce mill is nicely abort: grinds exceeding fast. =, Her lawyer was Pat McCarran, an ex- justice of the supreme-court, to whom, says rumor, Mary paid $20,000 in fees and a house in Reno, known today as “The Pick- ford House.” The ottal cost of Mary's di- ° orce is rumored to have amounted to $40,- 00. Tt_was in Reno that Cornelius Vanderbilt the Mast 7 the Vanderbilts,” staged hi spectacular divorce from his it ‘Kod ie 1, yoy yet ag a it was here, while spending his months “time” in a racing roadster, a it links and on dance floors, that he met and fell invlove with No. 2, a very fair Reno fee herself—Mrs. Mary Ben (Copyright, 1928, NBA Magasine) a A a widaw of Alfred G.. Vanderbilt. . . ugh. et le hitches “em. Reno's court house. . temple of disillusionment, it does ‘a “ed ‘2 business “at untying matrimonial bonds. The man from whom she was freed’ at that time was S. H. McKim, who contested the suit which he lost when it went to the supreme court. met the onetime Mrs. McKim while she was a eaaleae of Reno and it was rumored at the time that she had married the rich ex-director of the mint. Linen Rare getting her freedom, she took a vores ts Orient and, following her Teturn to New You » subsequently became the wife of Alfred Vanderbilt. After Vanderbilt's tragic death on the Lusi- tania, Baker renewed attentions to the en witht gy Page oe married. on angely enoug! to their honeymoon in the Nevada community ip which they were recently sent on their respective ways, ‘on two or occasions Mrs. Baker spent several months there with warm friends she hed guage in the famed center of marriage and ‘alti in, Reno that there duels the niece of pip iensal 3s rs. Callam, who, after be- a divorcee, lives on in contentment with her So It was here where the wealthy aaa of ene came for curing. It was here; that Mar, Durant Daniels, daughter of the Piro oii liam Durant, took ie fon * and minus her_wealthy husband, “It was bere that I fame came came for the aa oe Gloria Fone be ro! multimillionaire railroa A ae ho Waller Inna. to 7.000, Dukes tobacco millions. And many. many pata with names equally gilded and littering. 2 C Mex Debi, Daten, Cine rumor-links her name with that of Raymond T. Baker. - “work. beg ge prays It isn’t all