The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-09-03
pecial to the News and Observer.

Grave in the Mountains.
Special to the News and Observer.
HICKORY, N. c., Aug. 81.
Within the range of human experience
are sometimes found tragedies more aw-
full, mysteries darker than any that ever
had their origin in novelist's brain.
Seventeen years ago Hickory was not
the stirring, thriving business town of
to-day The traveller in this region saw
here only a struggling village and gaunt,
unpainted houses where now substantial
business buildings and handsome finished
residences show how the tide of pros
perity flowed into her borders. But in
that day, as in this, the inhabitants of
the town had their plans and ambitions,
their pleasure and happiness, their sui
ferings and disappointments. Love, too,
was here, not grown old by an existence
prolonged from Eden. And Jealousy
growed into the hearts of his victims and
wrought his woeful work just as he does
wherever the sun shines. Love, not be-
ing always particular concerning his
abode, made his home with very pro-
sale person who was harness maker
and whose name was very unpoetic
one-John Mcguire. The object of Johns
affection did not rejoice in soubriquet
suitable for dime variety actress, for
she was saluted by the eupho-
NOUS title of Phronie Bolick.
But if her name was ugly,
its possessor was not. On the con-
trary nature had made Phronie beautiful
in form and feature. So fair did she
seem to the harness maker, that he
became her slave. Nor was she ayerse
to his suit; for they were married. He
was happy for season, his vision being
far too short to discern the approaching
shadow of death that was ere long to
envelop him. His golden dreams did
not endure. Foul suspicious took root
in his mind. The rank weeds of discord
and strife sprang up where the sweet
flowers of confidence and affection once
bloomed.
One night the people of the town were
startled by the sharp crack of revolver,
followed by woman's piercing shrieks.
Upon one back street Maguire's wife was
found with bullet in her breast. Stung
to madness, by her supposed infidelity
her husband attempted to take her life.
She recovered. Mcguire was arraigned
before the bar of the court in Newton to
answer his crime. Rejecting legal coun-
sci, he conducted his own defence and
spent the succeeding twelve months after
his trial in the county jail.
Solitude and confinement cooled the
fiery passion of his blood when he came
forth from prison. He sought recon
citation with his wife, expressing deep
repentance for the wrong which he had
inflicted on her. She received him again
to her arms, and for some months they
seemed to have regained their lost hap
piness. 1t was the calm preceding the
storm.
In July, 1878, in the gathering dusk
of evening, Mcguire set out from his
house to visit his brother-in-law's home,
a distance of about three miles. He took
a much longer journey than he expected
at the start, though he did not finish that
which he undertook, nor did he ever
return. Search parties secured the sur
rounding country. A mill-pond was
dragged, but the guilty secret was not
beneath its waters. After while public
interest in the mysterious disappearance
waned. Other topics crowded it from
attention, and Mcguire was forgotten.
His disconsolate widow, who had been
the object of many curious chances and
not few significant hints, after mourn
ing the first husband for a period
TO several weeks, consoled herself of
assuming the name of Holler, at the
urgent request of Mr.. Jacob Holler. The
second match proved more propitious
than the first. The couple lived together
in the utmost harmony to all appear
ances, until the latter part of July. 1895.
Then Jacob in some Sway ruff, the
amiable temper of his wife, erstwhiles
widow, whereupon she is said to have
made the pleasant suggestion that posi-
bly, he "might disappear like John
Mcguire did," And Jacob, IN truth, dis
appeared, though without the aid of his
wife. He varied Maguire's performance
by taking the Southern Railway route
and seeking the ''laud of the Dacotahs."
instead of the "Kingdom of Ponemah"
and the Gland of the Hereafter" And
he left ghostly tale behind him, story
of foul and treacherous murder. John
Maguire's ghost had comeback from the
grave to cry aloud for vengeance on his
assisssins. Upon lofty ridge, near the
Casawba river, in the dense thicket,
so Holler said, the brother of
the woman had laid in wait for
Mcguire. Holler himself was pres
ent. The golden sunlight had faded
into the cleaning whea the victim was
seen approaching TIE spot where he was
to meet his doom. The murderer
crouched down in the thick brush on the
edge of the path.
In moment Mcguire was within a
few feet of him There was an ominous
click of the trigger springing backward
IN. "a squirt of flame licked out from the
muzzle of the gun. The next instant the
thunder of heaven awoke on the noun
tain, John Mcguire sprang convulsively
into the air, spun round once and again,
and then plunged forward on his face,
to the earth stone dead. In that lonely
and neglected spot his body was buried
out CT sight, and there he had been