The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-08-03
the letter was in pencil and the note
In ink. IL
An ASTONISHING Variety.

JOnn COOK IN one of his letters offers
his heart and hand" to Miss Nellie
| Holmes. He says he is a widower and
that he thinks it would be very COM
portable ITO marry the sister of his
| frlends Wife, Cook wrote that he was
| stopping at Newton, not twenty miles
away, ana would come at once to see
MISS Holmes If she would write. Need
less TO say Miss Holmes did not write.
She had already had enough of letter.
| writing. leIn later letters which Clark
| sent to the Holmes as having been re-
| ce1Ved by himself man named Decker
wrote things derogatory of the Holmes
FAMILY, particularly of the daughters.
| Clark WROTE that he would settle Dec
ker if he could find him. After writing
number of these letters Decker went
| TO Buffalo and was burned up in a ho-
tel Clark, who seemed to have learned
this in some mysterious way, wrote the
particulars of the death to the Holmes
| family.
The number and variety of these lat
er letters is astonishing, as is the guam
tlty OF matter set forth in them. The
| man that could conceive and carry
such correspondence to a successful
| close must certainly have literary abil-
1ty. he ought to be able to write
| novel or more than passing interest.
| He certainly has weaved a plot of
Iolstolan power into his everyday cor
| reSpondence. The only evident mis-
take he has made is in the hand writ
Ing, WINCH although he has tried to
conceal, has revealed itself with many
| little eccentricities. For instance, the
writer always makes two short marks
Tor a period and his quotation marks,
Whlch are frequently used are placed
below instead Of above the word used
Inc It is always crossed with an odd
turn and the IS" and the "K' are so
allke and so peculiar 1t is difficult to
tell them apart.
The handwriting is old-fashioned
and precise and whether in pencil or
INK SHOWS the same pecuIarities. It
is from this writing and its exact like
ness with that of Doc Ryno that the
case of criminal libel will be argued
EXPERTS nave examined the writing
and are positive that it is the work of
one man and that the man is Ryno.
For years RynO has been clerk of the
school district and as SUCH has carried
on an extensive correspondence Let
ters and checks showing his writing
under various conditions have been
collected for the examination.
Thought Writer a Lunatic.
The poisoning of the dog, while It
angered the Holmeses, did not lead
them to suspect serious trouble They
had come to the conclusion that their
letter writer was a mild lunatic who
would do no great harm. They knew
that someone was about the farm
nightly and suspected that it was he,
but Tor some unaccountable reason
they were not afraid of him. After the
string episode the family took no pre-
caution nor made any attempt to
brighten their mysterious visitor away.
Although Mrs Holmes worried, the
daughters were inclined to laugh the
matter off, and the friends who visited
them constantly made it the subject Of
joking.
1t was cloudy the evening after the
Fourth of July and a cool wind kept the
members of the Holmes family indoors.
Carl saba drove over during the even
ing to see Mr.. Holmes about some
thrashing and when he started for
nome Maud Holmes walked out on the
porch with him. Maud Holmes was
afraid of nothing and when she sat
down on the steps to "coo1 off, as she
SAID, she had not though of her strange
visitor Thus she sat for some time
While the rattle Of Saida's cart died
away over the hill and the low rumble
of thunder took it's place. Inside her
father and mother sat around a low
hanging lamp reading and the light
streamed on her from the open door.
She was unconscious that someone was
watching her with jealous, angry eyes,
| yet it must have been so, for the i'm
print fresh in the ground beside the
|
man had crouched. The print was
| deep, as though a watch Of hours had
been kept.
An Eccentric Shooting.
| 1t was somewhere near 10 o'clock
when Maud Holmes yawned sleepily
| and went indoors. It was Saturday
night and she had just finished a hard
| weeks sewing for some neighbours
| With an Tn off, people!" she climbed
the stairs. Her room is at one corner
| OF the house, with windows looking
out on the road and the barnyard AS
| she stood in front Of the side window
IN the dark she wondered what had be-
come of the man of letters. She par
| leyed with herself about lighting the
lamp, but finally did so, and stood
| looking into the glass beside the win
dow. She neither closed the blinds nor
| drew the shade and her figure was
sharply silhouetted against the dark
! outside. With her arms up before her
face she 1azily began to unpin her hair.
At that moment the man who wanted
to kill her took aim on an old-fashioned
| gun which was loaded with small shot.
| When she screamed and staggered back
| from the window the flesh of her face
and arms and breast was literally torn
| to shreds.
People living on an adjoining farm
heard the shot and thought someone
! VIZ 11O1O111S d DS1dl0u C0IGDTdtiOn OIL the
| Fourth. They were still discussing the
| subject when a man ran through their
| dooryard and disappeared In a corn
| field to the-eaSt. Then they heard the
| galloping of horses as Mr.. Holmes
| drove out of his yard for town. There
| were no men at home and the women
| dared not leave their house to ask if
their neighbors were in trouble. 1t was
| the next day before the community
| knew Of the shooting and there was
| nothing then to do; the physicians and
| the sheriff had long since been at work
/ 1t is a question as to which reached
| the Holmes house first, the doctor from
Galva or the. sheriff from Mcpherson.
| Difficult Case to Prove.
Sheriff J. L. SeitZ was asleep when
the telephone called him, but he had
| fifteen minutes to catch the train for
| Galva and he caught it. Not more
| than a half hour later he landed at tbs
Holmes farm and went to work Be-
fore morning he had read every letter
| in the big budget which was unearthed
| from an attic hiding place. There was
! no cleW to work on except the descrip-
| ton of Clark and the poisoning of the
| dog. 1t was the following Thursday
| when the sheriff arrested Ryno and
| found one barrel of his shotgun re-
Gently discharged. Ryno protested and
| the neighborhood looked on in aston
ishment, but the sheriff insisted that
| he had his man. Nor would he give UP,
although lawyers were inclined to
laugh and the letters and gun were
his sole proof of guilt.
| The charge of criminal libel was the
only one which could be brought on
| the evidence and Ryno was soon out
on $1,000 bond, which he gave himself.
| 7O14tcr rcri11 h fo, ~ Il