The Baltimore County union., 1889-02-23
Para0nal Manti0n :

Personal Mention
Mr.. and Mrs b. N. Baker, of Catonsville,
sailed for Europe few days ago.
Mr.. Henry McShane has been critically i'll
the past week at his residence, Mt. Washington.
Miss Ella r. Jones, of Patapsco Neck, 18th
district, is visiting her sister, Mrs. VIM. Fenby,
| of Westminster.
Mr. Eli Bond, who has been engaged in
farming near Shawan 8th district, has remov-
ed his family to Washington.
Col. o. ?: Macgill and his daughter, Miss
Betty Macgill, were registered at the Hygeia
| Hotel Old Point, on the 10th inst.
Rev. VIM. E. Bartlett, pastor of st. AIMS
Catholic Church, on the York road, left on
| Tuesday for Havana, Cuba, to be absent about
| one month.
Mr. S. Webster Bradford, of Tacoma, Wash
| ington Territory, came home this week on busi-
ness. He is a son of the late Ex-Governor Brad
| ford, of Baltimore county.
Miss Margaretta Ridgely, daughter of Mrs.
| Charles Ridgely, of Hampton, who has been i'll
with typhoid fever at the family residence in
| the city, is now improving.
County Treasurer George w. Morgan left
on Thursday for Hagerstown, to attend meet
ing of the Grand Army of the Republic. He
was accompanied by Mr.. b. p. Butler, clerk to
Sheriff Tracey.
Mr.. William B. Beaumont well known
and popular young business man of Wethered-
vile, Baltimore county, has sold his store stock
and removed to Baltimore, where he Will engage
in the milk business.
Mr.. George w Seipp, of Bethel Lodge, Tow
sontown left ON Tuesday to attend the annual
meeting of the Grand Lodge of the Ancient Or
der of United Workman, which met at Will
mingtOn, Del. this week.
State Senator James J. Lindsay, of Balti-
more county, was the guest of Col. L. B. McCabe
at the banquet rendered to Gov. Jackson, by
the members of his staff, at the Merchants Club,
Baltimore, on Tuesday evening
Miss May Butler, daughter of Mrs. S. f.
Butler, of OfTowsOntown, and Miss Lizzie Tracey,
daughter of Sheriff Tracey, attended the last re-
ception of Mrs Cleveland, which was held at
the White House, Saturday, 18th inst. s1V-
Mr.. ]. ]. Jones and his two brothers, who
have been engaged in farming i'll the 8th district,
will sell all their personal property on the 4th
of March and soon thereafter remove to Colora-
do. They are industrious and reliable young
men.
-Ex-COunty Commissioner James Ritten-
house, of the 18th district, State weigher of live
stock, was in TOwsOntown on Tuesday. In adj
dition to bis official duties, Mr.. Rittenhouse is
extensively engaged in the truck business and
gives his personal attention to his large interests
in that line.
Among those from Baltimore county who
attended the charity ball in Baltimore on We'd
nesday night were Col d. G. Mcintosh and
daughters and Miss Silvine Slingluff, of Tow
sontown; Mrs. VIM. t. Thelin and daughter,
of Mt. Washington; Miss Punnett, of Cations
vile, and Mr.. d. Bosley Merryman.
The Rev. Watson Case, pastor of Piedmont
N.Y. H. OnuTCIl, fITS1Uld, IOTIneTly OI place,
whose illness has heretofore been mentioned in
THE UNION, is still confined to his room and is
in feeble condition, although slowly improV-
ing. Skillful medical treatment seems to have
been successful in warding off another relapse.
Miss Clara LYMAN, of New Castle county,
Del, is visiting Miss Mamie Morrison, daugh-
ter of Mr.. Alex. NJ. Morrison, of Sweet Air. In
| this connection it may be interesting to state
! that Mr.. Morrisons family settled along the
Brandywine, in Delaware, upwards of two hun
1raA III fofh fhar laka Do
Morrison, came to Maryland about century
| ago and located at Belair. Subsequently he re-
moved to Baltimore county and established a
successful private school for boys at Sweet Air,
where he also owned large landed estate, a
portion Of which is still in the Morrison family.
The Barn-Burners are Causing Some
| thing of Panic.-As heretofore stated in THE
UNION there is considerable excitement in the
! upper end of the 5th district of Baltimore coun-
| ty and the adjoining districts of Carroll and
York counties on account of the recent incen-
diary fires in the latter and certain warnings
that were received by persons in the 9Th dis
trict. A representative of the Baltimore Ameri-
can travelled through that country few days
ago. He says that Mr.. Daniel Beckley, of
Beckleysville is among those who received
warning" He ascertained that the excite
ment and alarm in the Maryland districts, es
pecially in Hampstead, are greater than in the
| locality in which most of these incendiary fires
| have occurred 1t has been reported that the
warnings in this district have been quite numer-
| ous but the reports are probably very much eX-
aggerated. They have, nevertheless, caused
| something like panic among the farmers, who
are threshing their grain and emptying their
| barns.
| The american correspondent further says
! "a remarkable feature of the matter is that not
! single of the fires has occurred at night
! They have either taken place late in the after
| noon or early in the morning This would
TO ir6in If fha otin IF fha
| substances employed, and has been construed
as humane intention on the part of the incen-
diaries to give the proprietors time to save their
| stock. The result, however, may have been a
| mere coincidence, and not intentional, though
| the notices given generally suggested the re-
moval of stock and grain. fact which gives
color to the theory of pyromania
Several theories are prevalent as to the
causes of this incendiarism Personal animos-
ity to the sufferers by the fires was at first sup
! posed to supply the motive, but that has been
! generally discarded. Indeed, it requires but a
! days intercourse with the people of the region
in which most of the confagratiOns have Oc-
cured to be convinced that they are of pecu-
liarly peaceful and kindly dispositions and
such is their well-mented reputation. Personal
| hatreds, therefore. do not account for the re-
| markable events chrOnicled. One or two of
those whose property has been destroyed ex-
pressed, with hesitation, the opinion that the
| stock insurance companies were instigating the
outrages, for the purpose of crippling the mu-
! tual organizations, and driving the farmers to
| insure, at better rates, in the companies guilty
of this conspiracy. When informed that large
| in5urances were held in these stock companies
| by Mr. Reiman, whose barn was burned in
Adams county on Tuesday night, and by Mr..
l. Eckenrode whose lumber and coal shed was
| destroyed at Taneytown several weeks ago,
they were less confident on the subject Some
still hold the opinion that the main purpose of
the incendiaries is to damage the Mannheim and
| Codorus Company, because of some real or
! fancied grievance, but there are good reasons to
| doubt the correctness of the theory"
On this subject the York Pa, Age says:
General Agent Young, of the COdOrus and
| Mannheim Protective Association, of this city,
| gives it as his theory that the recent fires in
| Mannheim township are the work of some per-
| son who has become monomaniac from study
| ing ON the subject of, and experimenting with,
! chemical action in explosives and cOmbustibles.
! He goes so far as to believe that the chemical
combinations that undoubtedly have caused
all the fires might have been placed in position
| months ago, even while the farmers were gath
ering their crops, which would explain the alb
sence of all footprints in the snow around the
burned properties, and why no persons have
been seen by the watchmen on guard, although
some ofthe fires have occurred before their very
eyes"
Turned on the Gas and Died.--JOhn Z.
| Porter, who for many years resided with his
| Chenowith's saloon, North Calvert street. Bal
timore, on Friday night of last week. He had
been rOoming at ChenOwith's for some time,
but having no regular employment he grew
respondent and this no doubt led him to COM
nit the act He retired at an early hour on
Friday night and as he did not appear the next
morning an employee of the house was sent to
his room to learn the cause He at once de-
tected strong smell of gas and bursting in the
| door, found the gas-burner open and Porter
! lying dead upon the bed with an empty lauda-
mum bottle beside him. 1t is supposed that he
drank the drug and then turned on the gas
with the deliberate purpose of ending his life.
Porter came to Towsontown from Washington
about twenty-five years ago and was one of the
first conductors on the York Road Railway,
continuing in the employ of the company for
some years. Afterwards he carried on the busi-
ness of house-painting here. His wife died
few years ago and then the family broke up
housekeeping. Deceased leaves three daughters
and one son. The latter is engaged in the drug
business in st. Louis. One of the daughters is
teacher in the Baltimore county schools.
Mr.. Porter was an intelligent man and had a
lor 10 oofa inta Ha uyac ma