The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-08-07
THE MONSTER HOLMES.
HIS PLUTOCRATIC METHODS.

HIS PLUTOCRATIC METHODS.
A phenomenal character has recent
ly appeared on the stage of events. He
Is known as Fl. Fl. Holmes, although
he has had half dozen aliases. He is
now In prison in Philadelphia, await
ing trial on the charge of murder, or
attempting to swindle an insurance
company. He had a partner in iniqui-
ty called Peitzel. It would seem that
he and Peitzel got up scheme to de-
fraud. by insuring Peitzel's life,
the understanding being that
Peltzel should pretend to die,
ana corpse should be OBJ
tanned from some college or graveyard
TO represent him, and thereupon they
should divide the profits. But Holmes
knew trick worth two of that, and
Peltzel himself furnished the corpse,
Without intending to do so. And then
the company defended on the ground
that it was not Peitzel and arrested
Holmes for swindling This was some
months since. Recently terrible reve-
latlons have been made. Buried in
the cellar Of house at Toronto has
been found the bodies of two of Peitz-
els children, who were murdered by
Holmes to relieve himself of the
trouble OF taking care of them. Then
son OF Pitzel was also slaughtered,
although his body has not yet been
found. Then building in Chicago,
| erected by Holmes, was examined, and
proved to be veritable Golgotha-a
place of skulls; fragments of human
bones we're found buried In the cellar,
or half consumed in a stove; blind
elevator carried the bodies Of victims
from secret rooms upstairs to the
basement; and there watts of powerful
acids were found which had been used
In removing the flesh from the bones;
and an articula tor of skeletons has
turned up who testifies that Holmes
employed him to wire together the
bony framework Of three persons; and
these skeletons were to be sold for the
profit OF the man who had deprived
their original possessors Of life. Sew
eral of Holmes victims were beauti-
full young women, who had sustained
illicit relations with him. The revela-
tions Of Blue-beard's cas- tie were moth
ing to the workmanship of this de-
moniac wretch, who committed muir
ders in half dozen states. The con-
tinent was hardly big enough for his
slaughterous activity. Woe unto the
concubine he tired of, or the creditor
who pressed him for money. He had
way of settling bis debts that would
have more than satisfied even an in
satiable Red River do per cent usurer.
They simply take the hide and flesh
Of their victims; but Holmes did not
stop with these,-he cancelled the
debtor and sold the skeleton! They
| cut to the bones,-but he articulated
the bones and sold them.
Holmes, of course docs not believe in
| spiritual world. He is a materialist
of the modern type. A "just God"
was no part of his scheme of creation.
His fellow creatures were simply ami
mals-forgotten by the Power that
made them;-and he had a perfect
| right, he thought, to cut and carve,
| and boil and roast and articulate
| them to his hearts content. Beside
him Harry Hayward dwarfs into insig-
| niflcance. For the arts tOcratic Harry,
while he wanted the plumber badly,
would not soil his own hands with
blood; but Holmes was a practical
| workman in his dreadful trade. One
witness tells of coming to the door Of
his room while the monster was burn
Ing up, in great stove, red-hot, the
body Of beautiful girl, the mother of
| one Of his children: and he describes
the heat and stencil as something
| dreadful and unbearable. But through
it all, wonderfully Industrious, moved
the dapper and admirable Holmes,
like tiend in the reek of He'll.
| Holmes is representative of the
| Plutocratic instincts Of our highly
civilized age. The Minneapolis Trib-
une was interviewed by one of Holmes
co-Workers, and said:
| Holmes, according to the Tribune's
| informant, is mOnOmaniac. He is a
| money maniac. He wanted to get rich
in minute. He always said he would
| be a millionaire. He wanted to get
that much money right quick; just
wake up some morning and find HIM
self opulent. He wasn't satisfied with
| making money faster than the Ordina-
ry man. If he had been drawing the
! capital prize in a lottery every week,
he'd be scheming to have the lottery
every day. He didn't want to be dis
| hOnoCt Int En wantpG
than he wanted honesty. And thus
in the long green in large quantities.. :"
The whole world is agtated with
horror over Holmes cruelties and
enormities; and yet, when you come to
consider it closely, he is simply rude
and crude imitator of the great Pluto
Gratis of the age we live in. He want
ed to get rich; so do they. He was in
different to the sufferingS he inflicted
on his fellow beings; SO are they. He
murdered dozen or SO: they have
| caused the death Of millions. He
| hewed away their flesh; the Plutocrats
carry away their substance. He boiled
and roasted his victims; they subject
| them to the tortures Of lifelong pow
erty and Wretchedness. He shut them
up in an iron safe and in a few min
| utes they were smothered; the Pluto
Gratis shut their victims up in iron
conditions, from which there is no es-
cape, and after months and years of
the most eXcruciating sufferingS, the
poor wretches die of want or seek es.