Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-09-05
STILL NO LIGHT
The Holt sWill Mystery Receives
:. No Solution.
ALLEGES NEW EVIDENCE FOUND
Il
Peculiar Folding of the Doc
ument When Burned.
VARIOUS OTHER DETAILS
VARIOUS OTHER DETAILS


On the surface all is quiet in the Holt
case. The will between its two panes of
glass lies mute in the registers safe. Not
word more is known today of its history
than the document itself, with its gro
tesquely addressed envelope, tells.
Yet there are several lawyers and many
interested persons at work on the case,
and no one can tell what a day may bring
forth.
While Messrs. Blair Lee and Darlington
do not admit that they are retained for Mr..
Devlin, 1t is known that they are diligently
at work son the case. 1t is believed that
they wish to assure themselves that they
have fair fighting chance. AS the heirs
at-law have possession of the estate the
fight on the other side must be undertaken
for contingent fee.
Information of a peculiar character has
within the last few days come from some
Source which is regarded as greatly
Strengthening the situation for the legatees
under the will of 1873, if they choose to
use it. Just what this new feature in. the
mystery Is cannot be ascertained definitely.
Fragment Torn Off.
One of the most peculiar things about
the will, and one which has so far at
largest piece of paper absent from the
sheet on which the will is written seems to
have partly worn and partly torn away.
1t is about two inches long. and inch
and half wide at the widest part, and an
inch wide at the narrowest, and was taken
from the right-hand end of the lower third
or the sheet, just opposite Judge Hoit's sig
nature. 1t would seem that this piece of
paper was present on the document until
hai
through, and then in some way the piece
OF paper was torn out, for what purpose or
m what way can only now be matter of
conjecture, unless testimony comes forward
from some quarter to explain it. 1t must be
remembered that this will had a peculiar
value over and above its importance as the
iast VIII and testament Of Judge Holt maxi
ing disposal of considerable fortt1ne
mere are very few papers in existence
whlch bear the autograph signatures of
three such important historic figures as
zen; Grant, Gen. Sherman and Judge Holt
PROBABLY Judge Holt himself wculd moi
nave destroyed this will had he determined
TO change entirely the disposal of his urop-
efty which is made by it. The question
a a. Did ne write upon the missing piece
oi paper Immediately at the right of his
signature any words canceling or reyokiup
the Will 1t was his habit to write sucT
endorsements upon the back Of documents
I'LL ~. IN ms case where he was carefully
saving the signatures for their value as
autographs, he may have written the can
cehng clause opposite his name.
Peculiar Folding of the Will.
consideration of 40 little Importance
and hitherto unnoticad, is the manner in
which the mysterious will was folded, evil
IDENTIFY for a considerable period, and Ger.
tSiniy at! the time it was burned 1t was
rot folded in the ordinary manner in which
such papers are nicely left by method;cal
business men. This method, of course, is
to fold the lower ore-third of the sheet
up upon the middle third and then the
upper third down upon that Judge Holt's
VIII was probably folded in this manner in
the first place but at the time when il was
burned 1t had been folded by the person
who had 1t, so as to leave the SIGNATURES of
Judge Holt, Mrs. Sherman, Gen. Grant and
Gen. Sherman on the outside The way i'm
which 1t was folded can be best expIa med
by SAYING that it was folded ~" fashion,
Win the signatures outside and the body
OF the document inside. 1t was in this posi-
ton when it was burned and it was placed
| in all probability, upon crate fire with the
signatures down. The Goals burned a line
OF holes obl.quely across the folded paper
In the lower fold these holes are large. in
the middle fold they are a little smaller
and in the upper fold very much smaller
but all the time in perfect line with each
ed all of the holes in the paper
,..- Did Not burn Long.
long on the fire, bit long enough to char it
where it came in contact with the Goals,
and in time these charred places cracked
| sharply and the paper fell out from them.
Another proof that the paper was folded
''Z'' fashion when it was burned appears
in the perfectly coinciding lines at the left
hand edge of the will, where the upper
left-hand corner is burned off and deep
notch is burned in on the middle and third
facsimile of the will it appeared in The
Star and fold it in the manner Indicated it
will be seen at once that the paper must
have been folded in this way wnen it was
burned The large oval-shaped hole burn
ed out right on the lower fold of the will
has corresponding half-oval burned out
| on the upper edge of the sheet.
Ingenious lawyers, if the matter ever
comes TO trial. can array large number
of presumptons around this demonstrated
fact as to the manner in which the will
was folded at the time when it was burned,
and it is fact which may ultimately lead
to the discovery of the person from whom
the docu-Gs-. came. At any rate it would
appear i, he paper was burned with
the autog. 4phS face down and this dispoSes
of the inference that some one threw the
paper on the fire, and, seeing the auto
graphs, rescued it. Whoever saved it from
| the flames knew what it was.
Search at the War Department.
AS it was known that some years ago
| Judge Holt was in the habit of going fire.
quently to the War Department, some of
the heirs thought it advisable to have a
search made in the Office of the judge ad-
vocate general for the missing will of 1856.
| This search was made yesterday at the re-
quest of Washington Holt. Not a single
| private paper Of Judge Hollis was found.
Gen. Lieber, acting judge advocate gen.
| eral, when seen by a Star reporter, said
/ in regard to the matter: Il have been here
| since 1884, and during that interval Judge
Hollis visits to this office have been very
irfreouert. / can remember occasions when
he came to get certain reports which he
had prepared when judge advocate general,
but they were very few. He may have
visited the Office of the Secretary of War
frequently, but cannot remember his COM
ing here very often. 1t had not occurred
to any of US here that Judge Holt could
have left private papers in the office, al
| though it would have been natural thing
The Reason For Advertising.
~ q