The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-07-01
invalid W0MAN'S
HANDS TIED With
BALING Wire
Mrs. w. I'll. HOlstOn Victim of
Attack by Man.
Suffers a Nervous Shock; Not
Injured Otherwise.
SCORES HUNT FOR ASSAILANT
Men Search for Him and Talk
of Lynching.
Larimer Leads a Posse and
Warns Against Mob.
Suffers a Nervous Shock; Not
Injured Otherwise.
SCORES HUNT FOR ASsAILANT
Men Search for Him and Talk
of Lynching.
Larimer Leads Posse and
Warns Against Mob.

Enraged by the story of an attack
upon Mrs. w. H. Holston, an invalid,
As years old, scores of men are search
ing for an unknown man four miles
southeast of Topeka this afternoon.
The attack was made this morning.
After having her wrists and ankles
bound by baling wire which the as
sailant had prepared in proper lengths
in advance Mrs. Holston escaped un-
injured, with the exception of ner-
vous breakdown because it is thought,
the man was frightened away by her
screams which attracted her husband
Mrs. HolstOn was sitting in her
home, four miles southeast of Topeka,
at 1880 o'clock this morning. She
heard a hen cackling in the barn. Al
though she is partially paralyzed on
one side and she has been i'll for more
than a year, she limped to the barn,
thinking to find a hidden hens nest.
She entered the barn and stood in the
driveway. Something dropped behind
her. She thought it was a cat and
her from behind by both arms. 1t was
a man. He took a piece of baling
wire, and despite her weak efforts to
resist and her stifled screams, he
bound it around her wrists, the wire
making ugly marks on her skin.
Mrs. Holston began to kick at her
assailant.
I'll fix you," be snarled.
He jerked Mrs. Holston's shoes from
her feet and started to bind her ankles
together with more baling wire.
She screamed again and again.
He hesitated, started for the door,
stopped and then ran toward a, strip of
woods.
Mrs. Holton's husband who was
working in the field, not far away,
heard her last scream which was loud
er than the first and ran to the barn.
He found her lying on the floor. 1t
was ten or fifteen minutes before she
could tell him what had happened. He
carried her outside the barn where
she tainted.
Holston revived her and telephoned
the sheriff. call for miles to the
north, east, south and west was sent
over the telephone and in a few min
utes Hugh Larimer, undersheriff, and
many neighbors were on the scene
organizing for a man hunt
Talk of Lynching.
There was talk of lynching. The
faces of the men were angry and
excited
Can we shoot him if we catch
him % one man asked Larimer.
Larimer warned the men against
mob revenge and the hunt started
1t was evident, Larimer found when
he investigated in the hay NOW, from
where the man dropped. the assailant
had planned his attack piece of a
sandwich and gray wooden sock were
found in the now The wire which the
man used had been cut the proper
length to bind a persons feet and
wrists.
The man was described by Mrs.
Holston as being of medium size He
had a weeks growth of beard on his
face He wore a ring on one finger
and wore overalls
Late this afternoon he had not been
captured. Larimer was still leading
the posse which was armed with clubs
guns and other weapons.