The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1885-07-10
Following is report of the books taken
nm the free library for the last quarter
1915 49,. 1882

Independence day passed off here with COM
narrative quiet the disturbance. even on the
night of the Sd, being mainly confined TO the
Main street. Here the noise OF horns and fire
crackers was kept up till towards morning and
honfires were built as usual below the bridge.
At about II o'clock in the evening, some per
son over anxious for excitement, started an
alarm of fire which was pretty widely spread
and which resulted in the starting out OF one or
more of the frel engines before it was found to
be a false alarm. The general opinion, espec.
iallv of the men who had worked all day and
who were called from their beds for the pur
pose of SURPRISING the imaginary fire, was
that this was carrying a joke quite too far. No
serious and few slight accidents have been re.
norted and there seems to have been no disord-
err, drunkenness or brawling.
e T. Clark, the surveyor Oft the Conn River
Railroad Co, who has been Surveying during
the mast week for the talked of embankment,
has nearly completed his work here, and is to-
day at the Co.'S office in Springfield Mass,
where he is in conference with the officials of
the road He will return on Monday at lO.3O
a m, when he expects to hold confab with tho
citizens, and then make such arrangements as
the company see fit to direct. Mr.. CLARK mas
examined the records of the old original VT
Valley road, and finds that the company prop
erty beginning at the Valley Mills, ext 'nds in
ward to the mill property, and Just above the
mill buildings itsextendS inward 81. eet, and
runs along ;until it reaches what is known to
the railroad people as station eleven, when
it extends inward So feet. At present there is
some doubt whether the company will build a
wall, as they talk very strongly of clearing their
part of the bank and leaving the others for the
owners to clean. However this cannot be as
serted until Mr. Clark returns from his cofer-
ence with the officials.
The Fitton insurance case came before the
circuit court at Windsor Tuesday, on motion
for "iudrment in chief" in accordance with the
verdict of the jury last May. The case in its
legal bearings is a curious one. Ffito1 origin
ally brough. bill in equity, and the defend
ants in their answer claimed among other
things that there was liaud in obtaining the in
surance and also that the plaintiff had to do
with the burning Of the buildings at Cambridge.
mort. The defendants asked that these two is
sues be "carved out on the law side of the
case and submitted to jury, procedure for
which there is only one precedent In Vermont,
though 1t is common in English courts and has
frequently been done in Massachusetts. The
iury found the facts, on these claims, in favor
of The plaintiff Fitton, or rather, Mrs Fitton,
who held the title deeds of the property, and
the motion for a judgment was made on the
ground that the jury verdict settled the case,
because the defense should have asked to have
all the issues il wished TO contest carved out to
the jury, they being the party applying for
iurv There were a number OF other issues,
among them whether the property was over-in.
sured, how much the damage was, etc. NJ II
Goddard, c Eddy and Gilbert Davis ar
gued the question for the plaintiff and J Mar
tin for the defendent The court decided that
these other issues must be determined and ad-
detjonal testimony taken and L NJ Reed was
appointed master to hear the evidence.