River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1878-07-03
The Mcdonald Scandal.

Some very sensational developments are
promised in the divorce case now pending
in the Wisconsin court, between General
John Mcdonald, of whisky ring fame, and
his wife. One or two points in the evidence
were evolved to-day, which are of unusual
interest to those who delight in the scandals
of social life.
The res gest0s of the case is the proof of
acts of adultery between the gay. general and
his paramour, Mrs. Mary Lamothe, other
wise known as "Sylph." Interrogatories
have been propounded to several persons IN
St. Louis to establish acts of intimacy, and
among them is Margaret Lloyd, servant
woman, who was in the employ of Mrs.
Lamothe when she kept house at No. $40
Locust street.
According to the answers of the Lloyd
woman, whose testimony was taken before
commissioner to-day, it appears that while
General Mcdonald was in prison in this
city in June, 1876, a deputy under jailer,
Schulter, was in the habit of slipping him
from the Jail at an early hour of the night
and taking him to the residence of Mrs.
Lamothe, on Locust street, where he would
remain until the "wee sma' hours" when he
would be hurriedly reconveyed to his cell in
the jail before the daylight had fairly broken.
Her answers to the question may be generally
summed up as follows:
81 know General Mcdonald and Mrs.
Lamothe; was servant in Mrs. Lamothe's
house, No. $40 Locust street, In 1876. Have
seen General Mcdonald there often, both be-
fore and after he was in prison. He stayed
in Mrs. Lamothe's room before he was IN
prison; knew him to stay there perhaps ten
times. do not know that he stayed in the
same bed with her. He stayed all night in
~ until har and was
one bed in the room. There was couch in
the room. When the General was in prison,
he came there several times, each time about
ten o'clock at night. He stayed each night
until about daylight the following morning.
A deputy jailer was there and remained in
another room. They drank wine. TIE
general occupied the same room with Mrs.
Lamothe. I do not know that they occupied
the same bed, but there was but one bed in
the room. Have seen them on she same
bed. He called her Dolly and she called
him Papa.
This testimony is only part of what is to
follow in st. Louis, and it is stated on good
authority that the interrogatories already
hers will establish the fact of criminal rela-
tons between General Mcdonald and "The
Sylph,'' not only at $40 Locust street, but in
the generals prison cell. as well as at room
NO. IJ6 Llndell notel, also NO. Iz1o CieSt-
nut street, and also at the Penitentiary
Hospital in jefferson City. The evidence IS
overwhelming, and the courts can not fail to
readily grant decree of divorce.
"The Sylph" is a woman of SURPRISING
beauty, that it is known to certain parties IN
st. Louis that in addition to gaining COM
plete control of General Mcdonald, and
winning him from his family, she has sue
ceeded in victimizing him to the extent of a
princely sum in United States bonds. 1t has
been a matter of notoriety here for some
time that of 100000 in United States gold
bonds left with her for safe-keeping when
the general went to the penitentiary, he only
received $4,000 when he came out, and, in
spite of his tremendous levy on the whisky
rings cash, the charming female william has
been enabled to pursue her victim to the ex-
tent of disrupting his family and perhaps
other pecuniary profits. She Is woman of
extraordinary shrewdness, and is admitted of
previous unsullied responsibility, damaging
reports to the contrary Notwithstanding 1t
is believed that her hason with Mcdonald
is her first, and that, once in, she has played
bold and desperate game. While Nc
Donald pleads poverty in the Wisconsin
courts Mrs. Lamothe has bank account of
st. Louis that foots up over $4,000.