The Opelousas courier. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1852-1910, 1893-09-23

The Clarion on the Fire.

The Clarion-et came out last Monday
evening Ton fly sheet lOxl5 contain
ing 8 short columns), and its main oh
Ject in doing so seems to be to find
fault with the COURIER and Democrat
because they did not blindly accept the
theory of incendiarism in the destruc-
tion of the office of that paper on the
doubtful and ridiculous theories ad
vanced by those giving it currency.
Although the Clarion-et occupies
nearly one-lalf its space on the subject
of the fire, we still fail to find anything
in its article that would justify the as.
sertion that it was without the shadow
of a doubt the work of an incendiary,
or to change our opinion as already ex-
pressed. We would have bnt little
better foundation to assert that "there
is not the shadow of doubt that it
was accidental, than those who have
asserted the contrary and were we to
undertake to make such an assertion,
we would~perl,aps find that we were
in as ridiculous IL position as those
claiming incendiarism. We stated last
week that the theories advanced in
support of the charge "that the fire
was the work of an incendiary cannot
be doubted' were doubtful and ridicu
lous. We are not aware that the Board
of directors have advanced any cvi-
dence in support of their assertion, but
the following from a special from this
town to the N. O. Times Democrat of
the llth appears to embody the "convln-
e.xl ~ In1, tl,p oh &c
cendiarism is made:
Both doors were closed and locked yester-
day evening. When the people arrived at
the fire this morning many saw both doors
open, and the fumes of coal Oil came out of
the building. A noise WAS heard in the build
ing about O'Clock.
1t is supposed that the fire was set in a
corner where there was a lot of paper used
for printing
1t does not look reasonable that an
incendiary should break open a house
to set fire to it when there were many
neighbors only a few yards distant
liable to be awakened by the noise :;
and the house itself situated but a few
feet from two of the principal streets
of town, with nothing but Il naked
yard intervening between the fences on
the street and the office. Between 8
o'clock and 2:l5 is more than five
hours, and coal oil and paper do not
bnrn that slow.
A majority "fthose who first reached
the fire assert most positively that the
doors acre closed 1t is quite as i'm
probable to suppose that an incendiary
would leave the doors open after firing
4 hn Al t.nt
the doors to do so.
Nearly all printing offices use coal
OH to clean the ink off of type, rollers,
&C., but it is not likely that the fumes
of coal oil could have been perceptible
in fire that had reached the advanced
stage this one had when discovered,
and it is more probable that the fumes
of burning paper and printers ink
both very overpowering-would have
drowned any other odor at that time.
The coal oil racket, like the balance of
the convincing proof" ia evidently a
fancy sketch.
The fling at "tllo COURIER's concep-
ton of editorial fairness and propri-
ety." we will treat with silent con-
tempt-the Clarion never has been and
Is still less pow competent to pass judg-
ment on such points-bu we will say
that any one possessed of convincing
proof Of incendiarism and failing to
bring the criminal to justice, ought not
expect this community to bear the onus
of the charge without protest at least,
no matter from what source it may
come.