The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1872-07-12
A ViragO On the Rampage.

The New Orleans papers of the 18th
ult. give the particulars OF furious
and determined attempt upon the life
of Mrs. Holbrook wife OF A. NJ. Hol-
brook, for a quarter of century one of
the editors ard proprietors OF the New
Orleans Picayune) by woman named
Jennie Bronson, the former wife OF Mr..
H., from whom he has been divorced.
Mrs. Holbrook was standing in front OF
a mirror, in her room, making her toilet,
totally unconscious of impending
danger. The woman Bronson, who
had clandestinely gained access 10 the
premises through rear gate, stealthily
crept up close behind her victim aud
covered her head with pistol. Mrs.
Holbrook turned and saw the woman
with the pistol leveled, the sight burst.
ing upon her vision like an appartion.
The crack Of the pistol and the sudden
turning Of Mrs. III. were simultaneous,
and one-two-threes shots were fired in
an instant at her unfortunate head, the
assailant looking like demon in her
hate, all three shots taking effect. Mrs.
Holbrook, small and fragile as she is,
rushed toward the murderess and Crap
pied with her, large and powerful as
she was, wrestling the pistol from her
grasp, while its barrels were yet heated
an smoking. Then the rage and fury
of the assassin knew no bounds. In
frenzy, and while the powers of the as
sailed young lady were gradually de-
parting from her, the woman seized the
ornamental vases and bottles on the
bureau, and crushed them, one after
the other, upon her head, raining blow
after blow, cutting a deep cash N the
forehead, another over the ear, a third
on the crown, from all of which the
blood poured, mingling with that from
the pistol.shot wounds previously given,
and Mrs. Holbrook would undoubtedly
have been killed but for the arrival of
third party. This was good, strong
Irish woman, who, hearing the noise of
contention, rushed up the stairs and
pinioned back the arms of the virago,
rendering her powerless for more harm,
while she ground her teeth in impotent
rage.
While she was struggling with the
servant, Mrs. Holbrook darted down
the stairs and out of the house like a
flash, and into the house of Mr.. Rainey,
calling upon the family, for Gods sake,
to protect her. Jennie Bronson turned
to wreak her vengence on inanimate
things. Her dress and hair were COW
cred with Mrs. Holbrook's blood. She
tore the young wife dresses out from
the armoir and strutted in them as at a
masquerade; she broke mirrors and
toilet sets she descended into the yard,
I'D 10, L., -, f.,
shed, rushed with it into the house,
and, making for the grand piano, hewed
the fine work of it into bits; she dashed
open the cover, and with several sturdy
and vigorous blows with an AK, cut the
delicate chords of the sounding board,
and rendered the beautiful instrument
worthless she attacked the plate-glass
mirrors and smashed them into splnt.
ers. Turning round and seeing the
table Just laid out for luncheon, with
the cIockery ard tableware upon ii, she
destroyed that in blow after blow, strew.
ing their broken fragments about the
floor in every direction. From the
storeroom she seized the champagne,
and, opening bottle, drank its entire
contents almost at gulp destroying
tNSl lhlhE ulJOil clt NOulb LAY
her hands, and sparing nothing beauti-
full or artistic with which the mantels
were covered, and running the interior
of one of the most tasteful and we'll
decorated houses in the city, including
the oil paintings which hung upon the
wall, and the chandelier pendent from
the ceiling, as we'll as the carpets under
foot. The police arrived to find the in.
terror of the house in ruins, the whole
neighborhood aroused. and the woman
only at rest from sheer exhaustion of all
her powers. She was afterward taken TO
the police station IN a cab.
Mrs. Holbrook is poetess well known
in the South as Pearl Rivers" and was
bat recently married to Mr.. Hoolbrook.
She will probably recover from her in.
juries.