A Spokane Policeman and a Runaway Wife
A husband tracks his wife's secret life through a trail of letters and discovers she has moved on with a Spokane police officer.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The divorce suit of A. D. Arper against his wife, Maud A. Arper, concluded with a divorce granted by Judge Langley. The couple, originally from Wisconsin, had moved to Spokane where their marital trouble began. Arper moved to Seattle for work and repeatedly invited his wife to join him, but she refused, preferring the company of Phillip C. Gough, a Spokane policeman. Arper eventually adopted the alias 'C. A. Bancroft' to write to the Spokane police chief and learned from Gough himself that Maud was living with him. The court awarded the divorce to Arper, noting the betrayal of the marriage bond.
“She preferred the companionship of Phillip C. Gough, a Spokane policeman, to that of her husband.”
Divorce proceedings were frequently reported in lurid detail in the 1890s, serving as a form of social drama for the public. This story highlights the precarious nature of domestic life and the use of private investigative ruses to secure evidence.
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