St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-04-14

corridor ana ten cells on edcn 1O0r, nYe
on side. Holong's cell was on the
east side. The death watch, one MAJ,
for day, another for night, has sat in
the eastern corridor and watched that
cell every minute of the time since the
six weeks ago. The watch gave the
GLOBE man seat in front of the MUIR
derer'S cell. Previous visits had made
the two well acquainted, and Holong
seemed glad to see face he knew.
There was little or no change in his APP
peafauce from a week before, except
that he shifted more neryOusly back and
forth, smoked and cheWed tobacco more
incessantly. and had struggling, half
grown beard covering his face. He was
asked to tell the history of his life, and
did so in a wandering, desultory way,
with the aid of much questioning.
There was not much to tell. He was
born on farm in Winneshiek county,
Iowa. of Norwegian parents, in 1856.
The first twenty-five years of his life
were spent in the same place. His par
ents died, his elder sister married, and
he strayed up into Minnesota looking
for work. During the past six years he
Grand Forks, OAK; at Ada, MIMI, and
at Abercrombie. MINI. In 1856 he went
to work for Charles Field at his
Pomme de Terre farm. and in
the spring of 1887 he came to ST.
Olaf to work on the Field farm there.
In all of HolOng's talk there was con-
slant recurrence to the Field family. He
hated them with all the strength of his
weak nature, and if lett to himself in
variably brought the conversation back
to them, telling of their penuriousnesS,
of their cruelty and stingineSS to their
horses and cattle and hired help, and
even going to the extent of accusing the
Widow Field and her son Charles of
such crimes as smothering to death the
infant child of the former, and of kill
ing the elder Field two years ago for his
property. The reporter urged him in
the sOlemnity of these, his last hours on
earth, to make a clean breast of his
When the murder was referred to he
crouched down and brought his arm
up before his eyes, as if to shut out
some horrible sight, but again protested
that it was nothing but a trivial quarrel
between the two that led to the killing.
In answer to further questions he said
he liked Lille, but that he never
thought of marrying her: he thought
she liked him; he had never had any
thing to do with the woman; he was
positive he had never had any thought
even of trying to wrong the girl; he be-
lieved she had ''tried to fool with him.
sometimes, but it was for nothing of
that kind that he went to the house that
fatal day. 1t was evident that if there
was any darker chapter in that days
history than has ever yet been made
public, Holong was determined to bury
in u nd RI
grave with him. Perhaps there was
not. Perhaps the shivering wretch had
told all there was to tell already,
and all the questioning was only so
much needless torture to heart already
crushed to earth: but against such
theory there were the established facts
of his cruel and wantOn murder; and
there were, also, a peculiar CLEAN of his
half-shut eyes and a singular ring in his
cracked voice when he spoke of the
fine looks of Lille Field and her physi-
cal perfection, that made the reporter
doubt, even in the midst of his most
vehement denial Of any evil designs on
the girl, whether, after all, the man
before him had not been guilty of
crime more heinouS than murder
itself; crime of which the muir
der he committed was only the at
lCluplCu COuSCdlHlSHt Wy Oil
unreasoning and wholly depraved
nature. So long as the questions asked
did not touch directly ON the murder
Holong was chatty, even garrulous.
He wanted to know IF they were going
to take him up stairs;;" if the reporter
would be there; if there would be many
people present; if the reporter thought
they would let him have anything he
wanted to eat on the day of the hanging;
if his picture would be in the paper and
so on. The hanging did not seem to
worry him much more than as if he eX-
pected to be simply spectator. He
did not seem to realize at all that death
was but eighteen hours away, except
when it was impressed upon him in an
attempt to make him feel the solemnity
of his position, and after an hours con-
versation the GLOBE reporter left him
cheerfully arranging to play game of
checkers with the death watch.