The San Francisco call., 1897-02-01
NO LONGER FEAR
THE FIRE FIEND
Petalumans Breathe More
Freely With Benedetto
Imprisoned.
Pathetic Episode in the Life of
the Demented Dealer in
1ncendiarism
Became Vagrant When His Wife and
Children Refuses to Cross the
Sc. S to Join Him.

PETALUMA, CAL, Jan. 31.-The alarm
and anxiety that has given a nervous
tremor to this city during the past few
days has been displaced to-day by that
composure which is native here. When
it became known this morning through
THE CALL that Ferdino Benedetto, the
Italian nov in the tanks. had confessed
to having started all the fires that have
threatened the destruction of the city re-
Gently and that his statement of detail,
coincjding exactly with the facts, could
not have been learned by him from any
other person, a great sigh of relief went
up all over the city. AS a result, great
many men who, rejoicing in recently &C.
quired jobs as special watchmen, will, no
doubt, find their several occupations
gone. 1t will be some days, however, be-
fort the effect of the widespread and we'll
founded alarm will wholly die away.
Every striking of the hour by the big
alarm bell causes slight palpitation of
the heart of ali who hear it and the quick
return OF that dread that has robbed people
| of sleep lately.
Last night while people, still weary
from fighting the flames, were congratu-
latiug each other that the cause Of their
trouble had been captured and placed
where he could do no more harm, the fire
alarm rang out again. People hesitated
ana looked 1T their watches, 10th 10 be-
lieve that it was not striking the hour
and then ran in the direction Indicated.
The fire apparatus was out in few mIn-
utes, and the streets were alive with peo-
pie convinced on the instant that Beue-
detto's confession amounted 10 nothing.
A defective iue caused this spasm. The
most mischief it did was in causing the
alarm to be struck, and when the little
blaze had been suppressed the faith IN
Marshal Collins capture was renewed.
! In their present temper people do not
readily accept the plea OF insanity on be-
half of the little Italian. True, his act is
| that of an insane man, inasmuch as the
| burning of a big warehouse, bridge a
| Ia m ber-yard and a woolen-mill could not
possibly benefit him. The tearing up OF
his blankets and throwing them away,
together with his shoes and hose, leaving
him barefooted on a stone floor in dark
cell at the beginning of winters night
was not sane thing to do. But people
say that that might have been good act
ing and the fact that he did not profit by
the big blazes he started may have been q
miscarriage of his plans.
If the woolen-mill and the bridge had
burned there might have been panic, in
the midst of which he could have looted
private dwellings with impunity. Mar
shall Collins recalls the fact, too, that
when arrested Benedetto denied all knowl-
edge OF tle crime and adhered TO his de-
nial until old man Mezo asked him why
he did not speak when, running away
from the burning warehouses, Benedetto
met him on the bridge. Benedetto thought
he had been recognized ana so confessed
/ TO the whole series of fires. The fact was
that Mezo, in the darkness, had not recog-
| niZed Benedetto, but merely put the ques-
| ton as a lest. Stronger suspicion was in
the MarshaPs mind against an'entireIy
different individual.
Having confessed, Benedetto became a
| braggart. He is little fellow, rather pre-
possessing in both manner and appear
ance-not counting his clothes, which are
those of a laboring man. He has round,