Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-12-29
FIRE KING REVELS.
Milwaukee Made the Scene Of
His ReveIry.
MUCH TALK ABOUT INOENDIARIsM

And No Doubt That the Bomb-Thrower Is
Responsible for One Big Blaze-Causes
of the Fire at the Street Railway Barns
Three Witnesses to the Dynamiter's
Work-The Loss Less Than First Stated
-Four Lives Lost at the Tannery-Thaw-
ing Dynamite Sends Five Persons to
Eternity at Long Island City-Terrihc
Explosion.
MILWAUKEE, Dec. 29.-One fire after an
other, each involving sums of hundreds of
thousand of dollars, have created panic
in this city. The insurance companies are
instructing their agents to write no more
risks in this city. Several outside insurance
companies holding risks here are thoroughly
alarmed by the terrible fires which have
| visited Milwaukee recently, and one or two
! of them have teiegraphed their agents to
| take no more risks until a special agent
| shall arrive in Milwaukee to investigate
! the cause of the fires and make report to
his company on the subject. Nearly ell
! the foreign companies have given orders to
take smaller risks than is their custom on
all manufacturing plants.
Casts Grave Imputation.
Who starts the fires? Are they all acci-
dental' This is not believed Quite the
contrary is the case and everybody is sat
isfied that the work is that of incendiaries.
There is one notable fact about all the
| suspicious fires and that is that the dam
age and insurance have been equal in most
cases where the insurance hasn't been the
| OF l.,
ever, as to the street railway fire. Chief
Jansen, of the police department. believes
the only firebugs at work here are dishon-
est owners of property, Who have taken adj
vantage of excessive insurance to burn
their buildings for the insurance. Chief
Janssen's investigation will be mainly
along this line. President James, of the
Northwestern National Insurance COM
pany, believes that about half the fires
have been purely accidental, perhaps one
one or two set by thieves or tramps looking
for plunder, and all the rest started BY
! the owners Of buildings burned.
The Greatest Fire so Far.
Early yesterday morning the most de-
structive blaze was started by a bomb
thrower. At a. m. a bumb was thrown
into the main building of the south side
plant Of the Milwaukee Street Railroad
company. There was a tremendous ex-
plosion and in a moment the interior Of the
building was in blaze. In few minutes
the hre was beyond control, and in les.
than An hour the entire place was consumed,
Costing the company $50 600, upon which
there was but $4,000 insurance The
street railway company's south side plant
is located Cn kinnlkinnic avenue. It in
cludcs the immense storage stable for
electric motors, the machine shops and the
stables. In the barn were fifty new electric
motors and nearly all the summer cars
owned by the company.
The Bomb Throwe- Unknown
Who the man Is who threw the bomb is
not known. He is supposed to be the same
one who started fully dozen other disas-
trous fires within n month. 4 grand jury
will be summoned to investigate The ONLY
person who saw the alleged bomb thrown
was Night Watchman Worden. He saws
that he was standing near the main door
way of the barn in which the motors and
cars were stored. There was whizz Of
something through the air, a flash and a
tremendous explosion. A small cottage
next to the plant Of the street railway COM
pany was also destroyed. a woman resid-
ing in the house became paralyized with
fright and had to be carried out of the
house after it was III flames.
The Tannery Fire Incendinry.
Investigation yesterday shows beyond
doubt that the fire which Tuesday de-
stroyed two tanneries, causing a loss of
S250, 900, and by which three lives were lost. !
Was incendiary. This is also the case with
the two fires on Sunday, when S125, 600 (
worth of property was destroyed. Since the |
big fire of October, in which nearly half of
the Third ward was burned to the ground
and SO, ,0O0, 600 worth of property DESTROYED. !
the city has been visited by a series of dis 3
astrous conflagrations. All of them were
of mysterious origin which could only be
explained on the theory of incendiarism. |
That such was their cause, and that Mil !
waukee Is at the mercy of some mono
maniac, is rapidly becoming the impression
not only among the people, but among the |
police and fire officials.
Four Men Lose Their Lives
1t transpires that four lives were lost
in the fire that destroyed the Conrad
tannery and portion of the establishment
of the Becker Leather company. The !
search for the body of Thomas Sullivan. |
the pipeman, who is known to have lost F,
his life in the Conrad tannely, resulted in !
the finding of another body, which has |
been identified as that of Stephen Yreaver !
a tanner, who resided at $50 We'll street
Losses Greatly Exaggerated.
President Payne, of the Milwaukee !
Street Railway company, said last evening |
that the loss by the burning of the com
pany's south side plant had been greatly !
exaggerated and that the amount would |
not exceed 100000. Two watchmen who !
were on duty when the blaze broke out in the |
street railway barn were closely questioned !
and both were positive that the fire was
the result of an explosion in one of the |
cars that had been run into the barn a
short time before.
Was Not an Incendiary Fire.
Inquiry into the origin of the fire in the
Conrad tannery Tuesday has led the police
to suspect that it was the result of carless-
ness on the part of the watchman and that
he accidently started the blaze while at
tempting to thaw out frozen water pipe
His story of the occurrence contains sey-