Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1886-02-23
ABOUT ARSON.
A Fire Inspectors Chat About Monoma-
MACS on IncendiAr.sn.

a Fire Inspectors Chat About Monoma-
niacs on Incendiar.sm.
"a strange thing about the crime Of
arson is that incendiaries seem TO be
wholly ignorant Of the natural laws of
combustion" said Fire Inspector Shay.
"They do not observe the oommonest
scientific principles in kindling fires.
remember one case where man tore
off a patch of lath and plaster in his
kitchen, piled up lot of pine kindling
wood against the hole, and set fire to
the top of the pile. The fire burned a
few pieces of kindling, ran up the
studding and burned off the roof The
fire department put ont the fire and the
partly burned kindlings remained un-
disturbed After another fire we found
the carpets saturated with kerosene
and cans of oil left near the point
where the fire started. Coal oil is used
in nearly all cases of arson, and the
smell nearly always indicates the cause
of the fire.
"Another strange thing is that it is
almost impossible to convict person
who commits arson. In the first case
named nearly all the furniture had
been removed, the mans little child
had been taken to the house of rela-
tive, and he himself had gone to the
same place shortly before the fire was
discovered. He proved an alibi and
was acquitted 1t always takes con-
siderable time for the fire TO make its
appearance, and in the meantime the
incendiary is getting as far away from
the scene as possible. We have TO rely
on circumstantial evidence, and some
how the juries nearly always let the
guilty man 60.
"Incendiary fires arc most frequent
when times are hardest. Right after
New Years, when trade is dull, they
increase in number. The time of the
year has no influence on their fire.
quency.
"Most of the incendiarism is COM
mitted by men who are in failing cir
cumstanoes. They burn their property
for the insurance that is on it. Insur-
ance companies are regarded as legiti-
mate prey by men in financial straits.
Then there is large number of
persons who seem to have no motive
for committing arson--men whc are
monomaniacs on .he subject of incon-
diarism. | recollect one well-to-do
ciuzen who four times set fire to the
fiat he owned and in which he lived.
He was not heavily insured-in fact,
his insurance was light. He built a
fire in his coal-bin, then in a closet,
again in a chute between his kitchen
and laundry, and, lastly, in some blank
cts that had been hung up to dry. His
family was not Mt home, and he sont
the girl away from home each time to
prevent accidents.
"Another man saturated q lot of
linen cloths with linseed oil, rolled
them up tightly, and stored them away
in pine box near a lot of combustible
material. He had no use for the oil
where the stuff was found, and he had
evidently counted on spontaneous CON-
bustion doing the work. A fire started
in the building from some other cause
and the saturated cloths were discoS-
cred afterward No motive could be
discovered for the crime. These mono
maniacs sometimes burn other peoples
property as well as their own.
81 should say that from fifteen to
twenty per cent of the fires are incen-
diary. Yet the difficulty of getting the
proof makes it next to impossible to
convict the authors of them. These
fires have not increased in number to
any extent, and If the times should be-
come prosperous / think they would
decrease, "-Chicdgo NetOs,