Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-08-28
STILL A MYSTERY
Continued from First Paga.D

| Inc BOX an which 1t Was Mailed.
| At the city post office little could be
learned today except that the location
| where the mysterious double-stamped let
| ter was mailed has been fixed. This was
| not such a hard matter as it at first SEEM
| ed to be. There is at this time Of the year
| less mail to collect late in the afternoon
than at other seasons. Except on street
| and 18th, most of the boxes are found to
| contain very few letters. The envelope
o'clock collection. All letters brought in
| by that collection are stamped at o'clock.
There are nineteen collectors who gather
| up the collection at the o'clock collection.
| Superintendent Ridgely today submitted
| the facsimile superscription that appear
ed in The Star yesterday to each of these
ninteen carriers and so located the box
| where it was mailed. At present the post
cffice authorities do not consider 1t advfs-
able to disclose the precise spot, but they
have the Information, and in due time 1t
will be made known. The carrier who got
| the letter found 1t in an outlying part OF
the city, and there were few other letters
| in the box. none of them being in long legal
| envelopes like that containing the will.
The peculiar subscription caught the
carriers eye as he took the missive from
the box, and he at once Identified the FAC
smile when 1t was shown to him.
secrecy Was Desired.
1t is believed that the will was not mail
ed by any one In Washington, or, II so.
the person who mailed it was not fully
aware of the important contents Of the
letter. The locality where the letter was
mailed indicates that whoever mailed 1t
knew that secrecy was desired by the
principal in the affair, and went to that
section of the city on the street cars In
order to mail the letter.
The post office employees and the clerks
at the dead letter office, who are experts
IN superscriptions, are uniformly OF the
opinion that an effort was made to dis
guise the Identity of the hand that ad-
dressed the will letter to Col. Wright. They
say the person who prints an address be-
| cause he cannot write in script, in ninety
nine cases out of a hundred misspells
some word.
What Mr.. ThrockmOrton Says.
There was considerable curiosity today to
learn If Maj. Throcknorton knew of thu
existence of this will giving his daughter
half the estate His mother, an aged lady,
| boarding at 80 street northeast, said To-
day that he did not. Neither, she says, did
she or her granddaughter know of the ex-
tence of this will made in 1878. Mrs.
Throckmorton received communications to-
day from her son and granddaughter, but of
the nature Of them made no disclosure. She
is not in good health, and by advice of her
physician keeps to her room, refusing to
see any one upon the matter of the mys-
t. rious will. All questions have to be taken
not, as may seem to her best.
A Hoax.
There was received at the office Of the
register of wills this afternoon a letter
superscribed like that containing the will
| in large awkward printed letters, which for
| a time aroused considerable curiosity and
excitement When Col Wright opened it,
however, he broke into a broad laugh at
| the paper which he found within it, Upon
| it was printed in rough letters the following
message,
For $1,000 cash full PARTICULARS of the
Holt will be given. Address through Star
| or Post. Memo
This commU' cation is regarded as a
hoax. All the same however, 1t Is on file
and If any of the numerous sleuths who are
| at work OF. the will case desire to take it
| up as clue, Col. Wright says they are
perfectly welcome to do so.
The Will Framed.
So many people have been coming TO the
register to see the mysterious will that
there was danger of the document being
worn out. Today Col. Wright had it placed
between two sheets of glass and nicely
| framed, so that it can be inspected by ali
| who desire to do without injury &c the
paper. Not only was the original paper
upon which Judge Holt wrote the will very
much worn, in addition to being burned
| but the sheet of paper upon which the W i'll
was pasted is itself quite old, as appears
| from Its Soiled condition ard the fact that
| 1t has been twice folded. that it is near
| ly wcrn through on the creases thus made
Those who have had experiences with cid
documents say that the burnt will must
| nave been pasted upon the sheet of paper
h1teen or twenty years ago, and the docu-
Ment has been evidently carried in an en-
velope rather than laid away IN a safe 1t
| must have been shown to a great many
people in order to have become so much
Inc a Jc
forces the theory that the paper was kept
| for long time by some one who desired
| it only for the sake of the autograp hs
upon it.
Miss Hynes Heard From.
telegram was received in this city to-
| day from s. s. McCann, a Kentucky law
yer. representing Miss Hynes. He asked
| that nothing be done toward proving the
will until he should arrive here, which
would be some time tomorrow.
Where Wns 1t Signed
OF course there has been good deal of
I speculation as to the particular time and
| place where the will of 1873 was signed
and witnessed. Thus far no one has come
| forward to throw any light upon the mat
| ter, and only such intrinsic evidence as
| may be derived from the document itself is
to be had. Friends of Judge Holt do not
accept the theory that he must nave given
| a dinner to Gen. Grant and Gen. and Mrs
Sherman, upon which occasion he brought
out the will, signed it and had them wit
| ness it in his presence. While he was to a
certain degree an eccentric man, he was
man of courtly and gentlemanly instincts,
and they do not believe that he would have
proposed such funereai matter at such a
time.
The fact that Gen. Grant was a witness
as well as Mrs. Sherman and Gen. Sher-
man, is said by some to preclude the in
ference that the will was signed at the
residence of Gen. Sherman. The general
belief IS that Judge Holt took the Will to
the White House, where, by chance, Gen.
and Mrs. Sherman happened to be, and he
asked them as a matter of kindness to be-
| come witnesses to the paper. The fact that
Gen. Grants name appears second is I'M
doubtedly due to Gen. Sherman's nice
sense of precedence with regard to the
President of the United States.
Some say that the paper was taken to
General and Mrs. Sherman, who signed
their names to it, and then to Gen. Grant,
who signed his name. This receives little
credence, from the fact that Gen. Grants
Eame appears between the other two
LANES, and all three names are SO nicely
parallel that it would seem that they must
have been written at the same time and
with the same pen, and probably with the
same ink. Indeed, there is nothing to In
dictate but that the body of the instrument
as well as the signatures was written with