Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-04-10
nv Dix Attained Fame in Her Three Big Exclusive Stories

had tripped in race and injured the
bones of one foot SO that he limped
Then there was fire one night. and
in helping the other citizens fight it
he stepped into a barrel Of acid and
further injured his foot so that il was
impossible for him To make the jour
ney between Monticello and the small
nearby town where she waited for
him.
''You know what she dido For seven
years she became a voluntary prisoner
in q little room back Of his lawyers
Office in that little town of Monticello.
You know how those little country
lawyers offices are. A front Office and
rear room partitioned of. Why.
that partition didn't even SO up all
the way 10 the ceiling. Can you pic
ture il? For seven years that woman
lived in that little back room and not
a soul in all that prying country town
dreamed OF her existence. For IS
months before the old judge died she
didn't even put foot out OF that
room. She couldn't even cook food in
there. All she lived on all those seven
years were the meals he had sent up
to his Office from a little short-order
restaurant, ostensibly for his own use.
So thoroughly was her presence con-
cealed from the townsfolk that gossips
even commented, wondering where she
had gone. That affair Of the old judge
and the pretty little book agent seems
to have ended. they'd say.
"In that little back room during
those seven years she taught herself
French and stenography. She seemed
to know that some day she would have
to shift for herself, he was so much
older than she.
Then. after seven years voluntary
Imprisonment in that little back room,
living so much more quietly than
mouse that the sharpest.nosed gossip
in the country town never dreamed
she was there. the old judge dropped
dead in there one night. Frightened
to death, she ran out on the streets
screaming for help And the first man
she ran into was the judges own SON
in-law.
"XoU can imagine the Juror in
Monticello when this was learned.
Why, the judge having been such
prominent lawyer. most Of the scan
dals OF the whole section had been
talked over in confidence in his front
office-and there she was all the time
sitting behind that partition that
didn't even reach the ceiling, and hear
ing every word of il.
But she had lived away from all
human contact except Tor the man she
loved for those seven years-and when
he died she simply could not stand TO
have people near her. That is why she
had fled to the Jail 10 get away from
people.
'How was that for a story to have
all to yourself with horde of news
paper men waiting just outside eager
to get il? 1t was genuine love, too.
Why, Miss Branch, after the story
came out, was offered thousands OF
dollars to so into the movies or to
write her experiences. She refused
every offer. She simply spurned that
money. There wasn't a legal charge
in the world against her. They
couldn't hold her any longer than she
wanted to stay. She simply faded out
of sight. That was some IL years ago.
I've often wondered just what became
of her.
"And I had that story all to myself
Did / put it on the wire? ] did not!
hit the next train back TO New York
and wrote the story in the Office. I
wouldn't have trusted that story with
anybody outside the Office. I remem-
| Der called her The Prisoner OF Love
! And she was known under that name
| oil over the country.
| IF ever you're disposed to argue
| that truth isn't stranger than fiction,
| just remember that story. Can you
picture what any fiction editor would
say to a writer who in a fiction story
| casually asserted that in a small coun-
/ try town a woman lived seven years
| in the back room of a lawyers office,
content with her love affair with an
aged lawyer. and her presence there
| absolutely unknown TO the small
| town gossips? If that story were
written as fiction it would be scoffed
as the widest, most impossible and
| fantastic stuff that a writer ever
| dreamed. Yet it happened in real
life.
Truth is stranger rSan fiction.
| have seen and reported happenings in
real life that would be dismissed as
too utterly fantastic al improbable
| if they were written as SETON. Hun
dreds of such stories.
"And those three-the virginia MUIR
/ der of a wife BIZ the husband. the
| Josephine Terranova case and the
| Prisoner Of Love-were among three
| of the strangest ] ever knew. But
more than that. they are the only
three genuine clean beats / ever got
| in my life as newspaper reportef.
! tCopyright 1927