The Portland daily press., 1897-07-24

Remember the name DOAN'S and take
no substitute.
office building was selected whose stair
ways were open TO the street, and the
times selected for the starting Of the fires
were usually those of the busiest hours of
the day.
The first work of the man, whom the
authorities believe has been setting these
fires, was on Tuesday, December Is at $50
O'Clock, when false alarm WAS rung in
from Box 43, at the corner of Market and
Commercial streets. Morris Conley, who
was near by when the box was pulled,
said he saw quite tall man, wearing a
gray coat, running up Market street.
Conley couldn't give very good de-
scription of this man.
On Thursday, December IS, a fire was
discovered shortly before O'Clock in the
morning in the hallway at l91 Middle
street, by man named Nelson. An
alarm was rung in from Box "A, and
after a stubborn fight the blaze was ex
tinguished. The building was owned by
Mary E. j. Clapp, and the loss on it was
$500. L. D. Austin, the clothier, met
with a heavy loss from water. The fire
was undoubtedly of incendiary origin.
On Thursday noon, Charles Sherry,
barber, smelled smoke on the second floor
of the large brick building at 453 1-2
congress SUrt6U, anu Oh lIiNCStiSocloA ~
was found the entire entry was ablaze.
An alarm was pulled in from box 5. This
fire was set in closet which hadn't been
opened for months.
On Saturday, December 20, Mr.. Rodick,
a barber, who occupied shop over Wefer-
ling's restaurant, at sos l-2 Congress
street, discovered fierce fire burning in
a closet at the head of the stairs. Several
rolls of wall paper had been deliberately
set on fire. The fire was extinguished by
Mr.. Rodick without loss.
At O'Clock Sunday afternoon, d. d.
Dyer discovered a fire in the hallway of
the building in which the Salvation
Army barracks is located. The blaze was
extinguished by Mr.. Dyer with pail of
water in the nick of time.
A short time before this latter fire and
for the evident purpose of firing out the
department so that the fire in the Federal
street building might get good start be-
fore the department could get to work on
it, false alarm was turned in from box
43 at the corner of Market and CONNER
cial streets.
J. Henry Rines's employees discovered a
fire in the blind attic of the large brick
block at 542 10 Congress street, known as
the Rines building, which was blazing
fercely. The firemen from engine ones
company put out the fire after some hard
and effective work About the time the
first blaze was extinguished second was
found at the other end of tho building in
a closet. This one had been started by
the use of a half emptied can of devilled
ham and was burning briskly when it
was first seen.
The sixth attempt at incendiarism was
discovered on December % in the brick
building owned by the Lynch heirs at the
corner of Temple and Congress streets,
l.
at the head of the stair case. This fire
was discovered by Mr.. Moses, a black
smith at 7.25 in the morning. 1t was a
hot blaze and the department had a hard
fight to subdue it. The loss here was very
heavy to the building and the occupants.
The strangest part of this fire was the fact
that the whole police force was patrolling
the streets at the time and ten minutes
previous to the breaking out of the fire
Deputy Marshal Hartnett was up in this
building and made an inspection of the
very room where the fire was set.
The seventh attempt was made on De-
cember %, when over a quart of kerosene
oil was poured through the letter drop in
the door of the Davis block on Congress
street and an attempt made to ignite the
oil from without by dropping matches
through the letter drop. The attempt
failed.
The eighth attempt was made in the
Thomas block on Middle street when oil
was spilled in the hallway over some
paper and set on fire. This was on De-
cember %, but no fire resulted
The ninth attempt was on December 81 !,
when a fire was set in the hallway of the
Cumberland National bank building on
Exchange street. A general alarm was
sounded and the department had a hot
fight with the blaze. This fire occurred
at seven O'Clock in the evening and was
supposed to have been set in the water
closet about $50 o'clock.
The tenth fire was in the barn of Daniel
Jones situated between Melbourne and
Quebec streets. This was undoubtedly of
incendiary origin.
1t was some time after this fire before
there was any group of incendiary fires.
On June 10th hallway fire was dis
covered at 80 IL Middle street by +. L..
Libby which was caused by some one
bringing a large bundle of hay up into
the upper hallway and setting fire to it
there.
On June 18th hallway fire was dis
covered in Forresters' hall on Congress
street in a building owned by F. N Dow.
On June 14th an attempt was made to
start fire in the hallway of residence
of Llewellyn Carleton and A. J. Cum
mings on Grant street.
On the same date Janitor Hodgdon dis
covered a fire in the water closet on the
fourth floor of the Harrington block on
Congress street. This fire did considerable
damage
On June 18th an attempt was made to
set fire to the Friends meeting house on
Oak street during the evening services