Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1911-12-20
MAD MAN AND AN AXE
TenOrizing Attendants at the State
House He Dashes up the Dome
Stairway.
BREATHES VOW OF VENGEANCE.
The Thrilling Experience Of a Number
Of Persons at the State House and
the Thrilling Denouement-A
Christmas Episode.

A mad man with an ak, breathing
vengeance and bloodshed, with d.
sheveled hair and fiuttering garments.
with glistening eyes and frothing
mouth, struck terror to the hearts of
the attendants at the State House
this morning.
For the space of two minutes or
more, for events moved rapidly, he
had complete possession of the build
ig and the denoUement was so start
ling, so sudden, and so unexpected
| in its finale that the caretakers and
guards are still ready to Jump to cover
at the least indication Of ANYTHING
out of the ordinary.
1t was shortly after o'clock when
he first made appearance tall,
cadaverous-looking man, unutterably
old, bowed with the years that had
passed over his head, looking not
unlike old Rip Van Wrinkle after
his century long sleep. From the end
Of very pointed chin there swept
downward long grey whiskers, that
shimmered and glistened, glinted and
cleaned and the sun light and that
were waited here and there with his
every movement.
Entering the State House from the
library side. he dashed up the
stone steps three at time and
through the banging doors, fiinging
them aside as though repelling the
onslaught of oposing demons. Across
the tiled floor of the corridor he
dashed with the speed of the wind.
The tap-tap Of is feet on the floor
echoed and re-echoed through the de-
serted building, penetrated to the
innermost parts of the rotunda and
filled with sound the Senate and
House as though warning factions
were engaged in the distribution of
the spoils that come with a we'll
managed election.
Attracted to the scene by the loud
noise, the caretakers and guards on
duty rushed in just in time to see
him making for the stairs that lead
to the dome. They dashed forward,
hoping to stop him, but none was
brave enough to come u close quart
ers. A long-handed axe, keen ard
bright was welded in his right hand.
He swung it over his head and all
fell back out of reach of the murder
Gus weapon.
ITO the DOME" he cried, and, with
a sound not unlike that of a panther
springing at its prey, he mounted to
the first landing. There he stopped
for a moment, just long enough to
make another swing with the murder
Gus weapon and hurl imprecations at
the little group at the foot of the
stairs. Then he turned and started
up the stairs again, crying, time after
time. "the dome" the dome, and
striking, with fiendish force the sides
of the narrow stairway.
The dome shook and trembled at his
tread, it swayed to and fro, as though
in the grasp of hurricane, and the
timbers creaked and groaned as in
the throes of an earthquake. Down
IN the corridor the little knot of
persons stood speechless, spellbound,
as the sounds of footsteps rapidly
assembled upward. Then. with one
accord, they turned and fled to the
outside of the building and in the
street, turned their eyes upward to
the dome.
The mad man, with none to oppose
him, continued up the three hundred
steps of the dome, bounding from
side to side as his erratic steps
threw him gainst first one side and
then the other of the stairway, ours
ing and swearing and seeming not to
lose any of the strength which had
carried him thus far. At last he
reached the top, his chest heaving
and sobing from the violence of his
exertions, his hands trembling as
though with the palsey and his eyes,
undimmed and still cleaning fero-
ciously, searching here and there in
the dim light for the presence of a
lurking enemy.
Then he placed his hand on the knob
of the door that lead out onto the
balcony. Giving it quick turn he
opened it to the fullest extent, show
ing his head forward until it was
we'll over the balcony railing-and the
wind blew through his whiskers. 1t
n