The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-09-07
They Try to Burn Down ]. T. Peters
Planning Mill---Four Horses
Burned to Death.
At 900 O'clock this Morning Fire Was
Started in the Rear of Dun
hams Drug Store.
A Meeting of Citizens Called and Com
mittees Appointed for the Protec-
ton of Life and Property.

= Still another fire started last night
at about 80 O'Clock in the barn of J. T.
Peters & Co., on the river front, about
200 yards from the U. p. passenger de-
pot. Among the first to observe it were
the men belonging to the Forepaugh
circus and from that moment till the fire
was hopefully conquered, these men,
tired and weary as they must have been
with their own labors, fought like heroes
to subdue the flames and save the
threatened property. For a time it
seemed as if the planning mill, belonging
to the same establishment, must snc-
cumb to the flames and it was only by
the hardest kind of work that it was
saved. In the barn were three work
horses, lot of hay and grain, sash ma
terial, tools, oil, etc., and everything
went up in the flames; besides several
thousand feet of lumber, the whole in
volving loss of about $500, partially
insured. The circus boys broke in the
doors of the building. which were Sc
curely locked, only to find that the fire
had taken possession to such an extent
that it was impossible to reach them.
1t is impossible to account for the
origin of the fire also. No one had been
in the building, SO far as we have been
able to learn, for hours before, and if it
was the work of an incendiary and it
was his intention to destroy all that is
left of the East End, he certainly showed
good judgment in his sele :tion of the
place to start the fire. AS it was, had
the wind blown in the prevailing t.i-
rection it would have been impossible to
have saved the planning mill, and with it
would have gone the passenger and
freight depots, the Moody warehouse,
the Curtis Touring mills, and everything
left of Wednesdays fire in the East End.
Scarcely had the weary citizens of The
Dalles laid themselves down to snatch
little we'll earned rest from labor and
anxiety. when fourth alarm broke the
stiffness of the night. 1t was a little
before three O'Clock this morning and
this time the fire was located in the
west end, at the rear of the Michael
bach building, corner OF Second and
Union. The fire started in a large
wooden porch and caused great excite
nent among the dodgers in the building,
nearly all of whom had been victims Of
last Wednesdays fire. Charley Graham
promptly closed the iron shutters at the
back of the building and to this as well
as to the prompt action of the fire
department, assisted by the company's
hose is due to the fact that the building
is not now mass of ruins Again
fortune favored us with still air, and the |
fire was soon under control. The loss |
this time is only trifing, but it might |
have been the complete ruin of the west
end of the city and all the business
houses that are left. We do not wish to !
anticipate tke results of the investaga-
ton which the council proposes to make
as to the origin of this last fire, but if |
the statement of Mrs. Britain is true. |
and we have no reason to doubt it, it I
was certainly started by two unknown
men whom she alleges she saw, withi
her own eyes do the deed. and then in
their efforts to escape dash past her so |
closely that they almost touched her. !
Mrs. Brittian had seen them three or
four hours before the fire was started /
and suspecting their intentions was /
diligently on the watch, but in spite of
everything, they made their way over:
the yard fence and the first thing she /
heard was the noise of their fleeing feet /
accompanied by the kissing of the fire.
But she saw the men so distinctly that
she was able to see that one had no /
shirt collar while the other wore a dark
neck tie, and she believes she wuold
know the men if she saw them again.
Mrs. Brittian Immediately screamed an
alarm and the men hastened to search
for the criminals but without avail
Fire at the Fair Grounds
Another fire broke out in the stables
at the south east corner of the fair
grounds, on Saturday evening last,
about O'Clock which resulted in the de
struction of thirty-four speed stables,
four of which had to be wrecked to save
the fifteen that are left, and consider
able harness, blankets. hay, clothing,
etc., the property of the owners of the