Clarence Wiley, the Rag-Time trouble-shooter

Ah yes, Clarence Wiley, the innocent pharmacist from Iowa. 

Wiley was only meant to be a pharmacist in Iowa, and nothing else. But not long after he became a clerk of a small drugstore, his thoughts ran astray from the chemicals that ran through his hands, they wandered off to---- musicianship. That was it! Rag-time, that infectious music that he had heard a few wandering pianists play at the local saloons of Oskaloosa(in Iowa). 

He wanted his go at it, and how he did. His first and only piece of music "Car-Barlick Acid" which was a rousing and fun-to-play cakewalk that Wiley went so far as to publish the piece himself, dearly hoping for success.

 (his only piece of "hot Rag-Time", oh how it is hot!)
Not long after his publication, the tune was sold out to the major publishers of the area, but not yet to the publishers of the east coast. 

Upon having this success, Wiley decided to go out and travel with local vaudeville troupes, wanting to play piano with them. 

His success was moderate, enough to sustain him, and his wild youthful ways. Not long after he had been on the road for a little while( in 1906 and 07) he was then in Ohio once more, and met a girl who was the wife of a brakeman named Joe Platz. Platz was a typically brutal minded brakeman and his wife found Wiley to be a better man than Joe. Wiley had gone on many trips with Mrs. Platz around the area, but in secluded places to keep far from Joe. The relationship remained secret for a little while, until early December of 1907. 

At one of Wiley's performances, Joe Platz rushed in and ran down the aisle in an outrage at him, apparently finding out about the previously secret love. Wiley jumped over the piano, and ran backstage, and eventually out the back door. Amid the chase, Wiley's friends got him out of town, away from Platz for a few weeks, just to keep him safe. 

When he returned, bodyguards were kept at the doors of the orchestra pit, to keep away Platz. After the show, thinking that all was well, Wiley and his bodyguards met up with Platz in the alley. Upon seeing him, Wiley had not any time to think, while Platz said he was on his way home, and that he did not want to pick a fight with him, foolish young Wiley hit him over the head with a blunt object(what this "thing" was will never be known...), knocking Platz clear out onto the ground. 

Wiley and everyone else involved spent the night in jail. 

The next week, there was a big public display of their peacemaking, with all of the townspeople coming to see the end of the town's greatest rivalry. 

With this whole thing passed over, Wiley did his best to forget about Mrs. Platz as he kept on playing at local venues. 

Not long after some more playing in the area, Wiley went off to Chicago to play for the large and eager audiences of the big city. He became a musical director not long after he arrived in Chicago, now establishing his success firmly by 1908. As a confident newly employed 25-year-old, he went off to a "Chinese Laundry"(slang for Opium den) on the 3rd of March 1908, looking for a place to stay, and most likely to get his hands on some "dope" if you will. So, the cats who owned the place led him to a back room where they laid him down on a couch, allowing him to relax for a moment. Not long after he had settled in, the boys came back, and without him knowing, one of them shot him up with Morphine, and as expected, he was soon high on the drug, and knocked clear out---

later being killed by the overdose. 

That was the end of a potentially very successful Ragtimer. He was too much of a trouble-shooter, and his daring, sinful lifestyle ultimately led to his death at age 25 in 1908. 

The one Rag he left to us is a realistic look into Wiley, and the life he lived in Iowa and Ohio. 

I hope you enjoyed this!