Minot Independent: Miss Bessie Lawrence, a pretty, brown-eyed lass of 18 summers, worked the people of Minot perfectly Monday, but it is alright. She is only a girl and needed the money. She carried a letter from one supposed to be a minister in Wisconsin, stating that she was an orphan and wanted to get to friends at Great Falls, Mont. She sold little song books for a quarter. It has since been learned that the letter was not written by a minister at all, and she is raking in pockets of quarters every day. The people of the west like to be worked, especially by a pretty girl.

Williston Graphic, 11/12/1903