The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-02-15
THINK CAKES KNOWS 1T ALL.
DETECTIVES BELIEVE HE COULD
TELL THE STORY OF THE
SHIP FIRES.

Cakes n Member of the LOngshOre-
mems benevolent AssOcIatiOn-He
Came Here From Quebec aud Bore
a Good Reputation Up to the Time
of the Clash Between the Union
ana NOn-UniOn LongshOrenen-He
Went From Here to Charleston
and Then TO New Orleans.
Peter Cakes, the Savannah longshore-
man who is under arrest in New Orleans,
on the charge Of putting dynamite or some
other explosive substance In bales of cot
ton at that port. is well known here. Oakes
has been a member of the workingman's
Benevolent Association for several years.
coming here every season to work at
loading cotton. He is Canadian, or Que
becker. as the longshoremen term them.
He has two or three brothers, who are
also known here.
Cakes was regarded as a steady, well
behaved man and was well liked by his
associates. He never got into any trou-
BILE here until the difference between the
shipbrokers and the longsboremen arose.
He was one Of the participants IN the first
row between the longshoremen and the
non-union men, In which it was claimed
that the non-union men were the aggress-
OTIS. Cakes was one of the witnesses
against the non-union men who were ar
rested on that occasion. This row was
not a serious AFFAIR, however.
After ii was seen that the longshOre-
men had lost the fight here Cakes went
to Charleston, where he worked for some
time and later went to New Orleans, where
there has been trouble all the season be-
tween the longshoremen and the steam
snip companies on account of the use of
negro labor. The detectives here are
very much interested in the arrest OF
cakes on account Of the apparent con-
nection with the Savannah ship fires.
One Of the main circumstances in the case
against him is that the substance which
he is charged with putting into bales of
cotton at New Orleans is the same or
very similar Substance which was used
to set fire to the cotton ships at Savannah.
The New Orleans authorities made the
mistake at first of supposing that It was
an explosive whereas it is a combustible
preparation phosphorus.
Inc tact that Cakes is a Savannah
man and that the substance which he
is charged with using in New Orleans
was the same as that used here does
not imply that the stuff was carried
from Savannah to New Orleans. 1t was
thought for a long time that the combus-
tible used by the Savannah firebugs was
brought here from some other city but
such was not the case. 1t was purchased
at drug store here, so Detective Han
ley stated yesterday. He has never been
able to ascertain who purchased 1t, how
ever.
The detectives were discussing yester-
day as to whether Cakes would "wiggle"
The opinion of those who know him here
is that he will not squeal on his fellow
conspirators, that is, supposing that he
was one of the Savannah frebugs. The
detectives think that he could tell the
whole story Of the Savannah ship fires If
he would. They have always believed
that the ship fires here were the work
of a certain small coterie of men and
that If any one of them should ever go
back on the crowd the whole story would
come out. Chief McDerrnott has received
no request from New Orleans for infor-
nation concerning cakes record here.