"The statement I want to make to the world," resumed Mrs.
McDonald, "is that all the stories told of my conduct at
the time I was separating from Mr. McDonald, are absolutely
false, and were maliciously invented and circulated.
The trouble between my husband and me grew out of his
brutality. He was a big, red-blooded man, but when under
the influence of liquor he was rough and disorderly. He
often struck me at such times, and mistreated me in other
cruel ways.
"I finally came to the conclusion that I could stand the
life no longer. So I ran away. But I went alone, and not
with Billy Arlington, the minstrel, as the story was told
afterwards. I went to San Francisco and visited with
friends, and while there I met Arlington. He was only a
casual acquaintance, and I never saw him after I left San
Francisco. I went from there to Cincinnati, and thence to
New York, with friends. We stopped at the Gilsey house, and
there William Pinkerton, Al Smith, the old-time gambler,
who had a resort at 86 Clark, and Mr. McDonald, coaxed me
to come back home.
"But it was not long before the old trouble began again.
Mr. McDonald was extremely abusive when in liquor, and Mr.
A. S. Trude will tell you that I went to his office one
day and asked him to get me a divorce. He tried to smooth
matters over, and succeeded for a time.