MAD FREAKS OF A GIRL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8842, 2 April 1892, Page 2 (Supplement)

MAD FREAKS OF A GIRL.

CREATES A REIGN OF TERROR. Lydia Wolther, incendiary, would-be-murderer, and general destroyer of property, lias finally been placed behind the walls of an insane asylum, and the reign of terror in Dodge County, Wisconsin, has been brought to an end. This peculiar girl—self-confessed incendiary and allis, in her general appearance, unlike the desperate character which she has showed herself to be. A few moments conversation with her, however, reveals tho fact that she is utterly without moral understanding or fear. She is a broad-shoul-dered, heavy girl, somewhat above tho medium height, with every indication of unusual physical development and brute strength. Samuel Wolther, a generally respected tanner, is the father of the girl. He lives in a house almost a mile distant from the nearest neighbour and is surrounded by a dreary waste of woods and farm land. Here the girl has lived upwards of twenty years. She is the eldest of a family of three children. The \N olther family never once suspected that it was she who was guilty of the many crimes that bud been committed in the township. In lact, they hat! every reason to believe that the perpetrator was some enemy to their household, for great boulders had been thrown through the windows and against the doors on several occasions during the past month. The house appeared to Lie in a state of siege. Strong bars of wood covered the windows of the ground-floor, and an old-fashioned muzzle-loading shotgun stood in a convenient corner of tho combination kitchen and dining-room. For many nights previous the father had guarded his horses and cattle in ho stable behind the house, or had taken turns with the rest of the neighbours in protecting the little Methodist Church about a mile distant. While he was thus on guard, the girl would steal out of her little attic room, dressed only in thin clothing and often barefooted, to indlsciitninutoly do. stroy the property and annoy the people of tho neighbourhood. An entire history of Lydia Wolther's malevolent practices would till an ordinary book. They began about four months ago, when Julius \ enie, a farmer living fully a mile away, found large stones buried in his wheat sheaves, the°resuit being that thrashing was delayed for two weeks and several machines were damaged. Adjoining the "V «juie farm is the schoolhouse belonging to the district where the Wolther girl had gained what little education she possesses. _ This building became the next object of attack, and late in October two attempts were made to burn it. On the night of November 14 the Echoolhouse was entered again, the books not locked in the desks were torn to pieces, and the few that escaped destruction were hidden in the hedges and beneath a bridge that crosses a sluiceway near by. The next attempt, upon the school was made early the following morning, when a lire was kindled with the remaining books and every window in the building broken by heavy stones. From this time 011 almost nightly attacks were made upon either the school, the Methodist Church, or the farmers' houses. Every stained glass window in tho church was smashed, and the destruction at tho school became so regular that the local Board refrained from making repairs. In vain the farmers watche 1 the buildings. They were invariably found out by the marauder, who turned the tables on the guard.- by attacking their houses while the owners were watching public buildings. Stones weighing tkteen pounds were hurled through the sittingroom windows of .Verne's house on five occasions just before daybreak, but he responsible parties couid not be discovered. Samuel Wolther's house was also attacked while the owner was guarding the church, shotgun in hand. The following morning Lydia Wolther came down to breakfast as usual, and the suspicions of her family were never once aroused. A successful attempt to burn the schoolhouse was made during the night of November '21, 1891. A member of the Board and (ieorge Verne had guarded the place until two a.m. At that hour they concluded that the danger for the night was passed and they started home. Before they reached their beds a bright light shot out in the direction of the school building, and before they could reach the scene the structure was a mass of flames. They quickly searched the premises, but could find no one, although stocking foot tracks were discovered in the mud near the entrance. Had they looked more carefully they woull have found Lydia Wolther crouching in the fence corner, with a butcher knife and a box of parlour matches in her hands. She meant business, and had made up her mind not to be captured. The echoolhouse was soon rebuilt, but the trouble did not cease. During the nights of December 2, 6, 8, 16, and '20 Farmer Venie's house was stoned and the windows demolished. The person was twice seen, and each time was shot at in the darknes*, but she managed to escape. Bare-feet tracks in the snow were traced in a circuitous pass to Samuel Wolther's house, and a warrant was sworn out for his arrest. He was taken while at a prayer meeting, and his daughter saw him carried away without saying a word. He easily proved his innocence and was released, but the trouble continued the same as ever. Mr. Venie came to Chicago late in December and employed a detective upon the case. After looking over the ground the Pinkerton man decided that he could accomplish nothing and returned to the city. The girl's capture, which was attended with no little danger to Mr. Venie and his men, went to show in what danger people had been living during the months previous. Tuesday, January 12, Mrs. Venie eat up till midnight watching the barns. At that hour Mr. Venio and two farm hands relieved her and continued the watch. At five minutes before four o'clock a young girl dressed in a short calico dres3 with a faded shawl over her head came quickly down the roadway and entered venie's front gate. She advanced on tiptoe to within twenty feet of the house, removed the shawl from her head and listened. Apparently finding everything favourable she cautiously moved around the house toward the barns. At this moment Venie and his men, armed with shotguns and revolvers, burst out of the house and ordered the girl to throw up her hands. With a single piercing scream she turned and fled down the road toward the school. Venie gradually decreased the distance between himself and the fugitive, and at the end of a mile's chase called out for her to Ebop. At Venie's command the girl came to a standstill, faced about, and stood with arms akimbo waiting for him to come up. As he reached out to seize her she gave a sudden spring backward, whipped out a butcher knife, seven inches long, and made a vicious stab at her captor's head. Venie dodged to avoid the blow, and tho next instant knocked her down with a blow of tho butt end of his shotgun. In a few minutes the other men came up, and together they carried her to Venie's house, where she was revived, and afterwards securely bound. Lydia acted perfectly docile until the gaol was reached. At sight of the iron bars all her madness seemed to burst out afresh. She viciously kicked over a pail of water that was standing in the gaol corridor. She was placed in the woman's department, and Mrs. Clark, the matron of the department, went into her Will with a lighted lamp to comfort her. %vdia unceremoniously kicked the lamp out of the matron's hands, and the would-be-comforter beat a hasty retreat. The prisoner was next placed in a strong cell, where she proceeded to break a wasnstand into atoms, then a mirror, and ended her exercise by smashing four window panes. At this Sheriff A. C. Hart and his turnkey led her out and made ah attempt to handcuff her, but the steel bracelet was too small to clasp over the prisoner's muscular wist. The steel cage was resorted to finally, and the girl was thrust in and allowed to do her worst, which she proceeded to do with small success. For three days she refused to eat a mouthful. Her food was thrown into a corner and trampled upon as soon as it was given her, and her coffee and tea were used to scald the face and hands of the keeper. The girl, while sitting on her littio cot, and surrounded by Crooning idiots and insane women, composedly told the story of her crimes. "I burn 'em, I sling stones, I crack windows, and I tear the children's books—Liddy Wolther, mo, I do it, he ' ho ! ho !" she laughed. " It's all for fun ; it's to make people mad— that's the reason. Didn't I go and try to fire the schoolhouse four times, and fail, and then didn't I do it again and succeed ? That's the way to do it; and then I ran away and went home to bed. I threw all tho stones at the houses, aid I.hid in the fence corner

and laughed when I saw old Venie and his men sneak out with their puns to catch mo. Father he used to watch the barn and t.he church, and once it was so cold that I went out to him and told him that tho people wouldn't come that night, and he came into the house and went to bed. Then I crept out and threw a rock through Tommy Water's window and came buck to bed again." The girl persistently maintained that none of her family had the slightest knowledge of what she had been doing until after she was captured. Careful questioning failed to cause her to contradict herself or to implicate anyone but herself.