3/5/2011:
Alexander McKenzie and Bismarck politics were inseparable at the end of the Nineteenth Century. McKenzie was not only the political boss of Bismarck, he had tremendous influence in state politics as well. He wielded his power openly and, during the legislative sessions, the Sheridan House served as the core of his operations. So blatant were his political antics that Bishop Mann of the Episcopal diocese of North Dakota felt a need to expose it. On this day in 1903 he wrote, "In a leading hotel in Bismarck the lowest vice flaunts itself unchecked and unrebuked. That hotel presents features of a saloon, a gambling house and a brothel ... during the sessions of our state legislature." And he added, "Yes politics, in the basest sense of the word, is responsible."
Dakota Datebook written by Jim Davis
Source:
Saint Thomas Times March 13, 1903