Old Missoula

Myrtle Wilcox Goes To Wallace –

She Takes Clarence With Her And Bennett Hikes Out For Salt Lake

Missoula has probably seen the last of the principals in the Wilcox seriocomic performance that held the boards in the county jail and in the court of Justice Phillips for a while and played to crowded houses. The Wilcoxes – Myrtle and Clarence – left the city on the Coeur d’Alene branch train yesterday morning. They said they were going to Wallace. Myrtle shed tears when she left and she sent a letter to Bennett, the heavy villain in the play, who was in the county jail when she left. It was a mushy letter; she avowed her continued love for Bennett and said that she didn’t love Wilcox a bit, but he was the best she could do for the present; she hoped to get a divorce from him one of these days, but for the present she must stay with him; all that and a lot more of the same that made Bennett glad that he was in jail, where nobody could get at him.

Thus fair, frail Myrtle departed. She did not take the dog with her; her little black-an-white pet that got her into jail once will never land her there again. She hated to do it, but she couldn’t take any chances, and she sold the little beast for $5. That was the most that she could realize on the diminutive canine at forced sale and the purp is now, according to Shorty Thompson, who was the official custodian of the animal during Myrtle’s term in jail, the property of a “lady on West Front street.” The change in ownership will not be so marked in its character as to cause the little dog any wakeful nights.

It appears from the confessions of Myrtle that Clarence is not altogether the guileless and innocent mush-head that he has appeared. Myrtle says that Clarence got $75 from her folks back in Iowa, and that he drifted into one of the hotels on West Front street, where there are lady entertainers for the guests, and that he dropped $35 there against one of the fair entertainers before he got his Myrtle out of jail. When Myrtle heard of that she was real mad with Clarence; but he is the best she can do for the present and she hangs to him.

As soon as the Coeur d’Alene train was far enough out of town so that there was no possibility of Myrtle’s getting out and walking back, Bennett sent for the sheriff and asked for the money that he had received from his home. This money he has had for a week; he had said that he wouldn’t pay his fine, but would serve out his sentence in the county jail. But when he knew that Myrtle was gone, he sent for the money and asked to be taken to Justice Phillips. There he paid the balance due on his fine, $20, and went his way. He left last night on a train that was going in the opposite direction from that which had taken Myrtle and Clarence away. His ticket was for Salt Lake.

And Missoula has witnessed the last act in the local performance. It was a merry show while it lasted.

The above article appeared in The Missoulian on August 1, 1907.

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