Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-05-22
A FEARFUL DEED.
Continued from page 1.)

saw that his throat was also gaping
with a fearful wound.
Joe" cried Mr. Mason
There was no response. The man did
not even move. Mr. Mason hurried
down stairs and summoned help from
the neighbors and also sent for physi-
clan.
Though he was gone from the house
but a few minutes. he found that the
murderer had been astir while he was
absent. On the door leading to the
shed there were the marks OF bloody
fingers. There was the print of a
bloody hand on the casing where the
murderer had leaned out evidently to
peer out into the shed. He had ira
versed all the rooms below stairs.
Blood showed where he had walked.
There were bloody trails through the
tiny sitting room: they led to the door
of a little bedroom and back through
the small front hall up the stairs the
smearing of gore indicating that he had
bed profusely as he toiled back up the
steep ascent to the bedroom.
No one saw the man as with the hor-
rible wound in his throat he traversed
his little home. No one knows just what
was his quest. The belief of all who
know the man is that he was search
ing for his wife and that unless she had
fled to protectors she would also have
been victim.
When Mir. Mason on his return hur-
ried up the stairs he saw n shadow as
though some one was moving in the
sleeping room. When he entered the
apartment Holt was sitting on the edge
of the BED. He still held in his hand
the dripping butcher knife which he
held when Mr. Mason first saw him,
What have you done, Joe?" asked
Mr. Mason.
The man looked at him stolidly and
made no reply except a gutteral. horri-
BILE. rasping sound. that came from his
throat as he tried to breathe.
He evidently could not talk. But as
he showed no sign Of further injuring
himself, Mr.. Mason did not disturb him
until the doctors came. There were Drs,
Il. T. Bradford, c. Il. Rankin, c. II.
Tohie. With the assistance of Charles
buchanan and Editor Perkins of the
Ledger. Holt was laid upon the table.
despite a desperate resistance on his
part The knife was not then to be
found.
Holt seemed tn have great strength
left in spite of his dreadful wound. DIR.
Bradford and the others found that the
windpipe and vocal cords and larynX
were severed and that there was no
possibility of saving the man. He
breathed almost entirely through the
wound in his throat.
Every gasp was Il curious grooming
sound. inexpressibly horrible to hear,
and as it was plainly heard outside the
house the throng that gathered shud-
dered and many left. unable to endure
the sound The patient was etherized
for the examination.
rs Holt recovered from the ether,
one of the physicians said something
about placing him back on the bed.
Holt looked up. waved his hand, made
a gutteral sound rolled off the table
and walked. unsupported, to the bed,
where he lay down. From that time on
he grew feebler though at times it re-
CURED the strength of two men to hold
him.
It's the restlessness that precedes
DEATH explained DR. Bradford. THE
man can live but few hours at most
1t was as savage wound as l ever
saw for one that was self-adminis-
tered At noon. the man was sinking
rapidly and the physician said that
death might come at any minute.
The room had the appearance of the
Ishambes. The Hollis were in rather
poor circumstances. The husband was
an employee of the Poland Paper Co
lately. Before that he had done odd
jobs about the village, saving wood
and working by the day. The floors
throughout the rooms were uncarpeted
and the furniture was meagre. Every
where were the bloodstains.
In little room adjoining Hollis bed
room lay the body of the infant
wrapped in sheet and a quilt.