The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-16
A JUMPER ON THE WIRES
INCENDIARIES TAMPER WITH THE
FIRE ALARM TELEGRAPH.

An Attempt to Destroy the Middle
Circuit and Place the City at the
Mercy of Fire, Bugs-The Discovery
of the Break and Tracing the Jump
era Clew to the Miscreants and
Officers on Their Track-How the Job
Was Done.
A dastardly attempt was made Saturday
night to place the middle circuit of the fire
alarm system at the mercy of an incen-
diary, and had it not been for the prompt
ness of Chief Fernandez, assisted by Supt.
Cleburn, of the fire alarm telegraph, there
is little doubt but that one or more fires
would have been started in the locality
where the wires had been tempered with.
The miscreant or miscreants were expert,
and put Jumper" on the wire, connect
ing it with telephone wire, opening the
middle circuit, that no alarm could have
been sent in from any of the boxes in the
southern circuit of the city and from Bay
to Anderson streets, this comprising the
middle circuit which was entirely cut off.
The matter was kept quiet Saturday
night, after it had been discovered by the
Superintendent of the Fire Alarm and Chief
Fernandez, and last night the latter in
formed a MORNING News reporter that he
has clew to the parties, and he is not only
keeping a close lookout for them, but he
has communicated with the Mayor and
Chief of Police, who will keep them under
the closest surveillance.
FINDING THE JUMPER"
Chief Fernandez was seen last night at
his residence, nearly worn out from the in
creased labors of Saturday night and yes
terday and the arxieties occasioned by the
illness of his wife. He gave the details of
the discovery that something was wrong
with the wires aud the methods taken to
trace the cause and remedy it.
"On SATURDAY afternoon, said the Chief,
''the two taps came III all right at the usual
$3.50 o'clock test. 1t is the custom for either
myself or the Superintendent of the fire
alarm to visit all the engine houses after
the regular test alarm to see if everything
is working all right On Saturday after
noon as Mr.. Cleburu was complaining that
his eyes panied him, | made the rounds of
the engine houses myself and saw that all
the boxes were working right.
TRACING THE BREAK
"About o'clock a messenger from the
No. engine house brought me the intelli-
gence that the gong there had struck one
tap. | sent him to report to Supt. Cleburn,
of the fire alarm, and | went on to the en-
CINE house to see if | could detect the cause
The superintendent started from head
quarters testing the boxes as he went along.
Following the wires out of the engine house
to box "a | found them twisted by the fall
of scaffolding on some new buildings on
Barnard near Hall street Assisted by the
boys from the engine house of the No. As, l
got the twist out and went to box "a and
then to the No. engine house. and found
the circuit still open, or out of fix, so that
no alarm could have been sent in from An
derson to Bay which was cut out entirely.
''By this time Supt. Cleburn had reached
the engine house and he reported that all
the boxes were out of gear. We got into
my buggy and tested all the boxes from the
Bay and back again to find the circuit
OPEN We visited all the engine houses con-
nected with that circuit and found them
cut out.
A WELL CONCEIVED PLOT.
"It was now getting quite dark but we soon
located the trouble south of Jones street.
We then followed the wires, pole by pole,
through Gordon street lane, the Superin-
tendent climbing every pole and examining
the wires for twist. When he got to the
first pole in Gordon street lane, west of Whita-
ker street, the Superintendent climbed the
pole and put his hand on the wire to shake
any twist out that might be in the wires.
as it was then too dark for him to see,
and his hand came in contact with this
'iumper'n Here Chief Fernandez exhibited
a copper wire from IS inches to , feet in
length. Continuing, he said: This wire is
what we call a jumper and one end of it
was expertly attached to the fire alarm wire
and the other end to a telephone wire. Ii
was evidently placed there by an expe-
rienced hand, and one who know what the
effect would be. As long as it remained it
would be impossible to send in an alarm
anywhere in the middle circuit.
1.-The intention must have been to cripple
the efficiency of the department in case Of
fire alarm, and the change was shrewdly
calculated aud executed after the $3.50
O'Clock test had been made. If it had not
been discovered, and promptly removed,
not only property, but life might have been
endangered"