The Portland daily press., 1898-01-20

UO Gll6 l6bnlIE All tllo W1lASs ~ASA ''~ -
carpet in this room and no evidence OF OIL
having been used here. In the Judgment
of the witness the fire in the rooms peloW
the attic had not been burning more IMAM
fifteen minutes. All of these fTes were
started Independently.
In room eight witness found straw
mating in the corner of the room satur-
ated with oil. A carpet here had also been
soaked with oil. The next forenoon the
mattress on the cabinet bed hal been
changed, but on searching they found the
mattress which had been on the bed in
the first place in another room. There
was big oil can in the kitchen which
was empty.
Mrs. Josephine Niles, wife of the man
who occupies the Dominion house was
called. Mrs. Niles Is a young and well
appearing woman. She said that they had
been livingsin the house four months and
let the rooms to dodgers and boarders. AT
the time of the fire there were twelve
permanent boarders In the house, occupy
ing six rooms. There are thirteen rooms
in the house. Witness has five children.
On Sunday night the house was closed
about II. 80 O'Clock, when witness went
to bed. The first she knew about the fire
was hearing some one shouting on the
street and hearing the front door bell ring
several times. She awoke her husband
and he went to the door. In minute
her husband shouted out that the house
was on fire and she awoke and took the
children across the street. When her hus-
band went to the door he had on his
stockings, trousers and shirt. His shoes
were in the room and he has no slippers.
and went to the door in his stocking feet.
She was certain that he did not wear his
shoes to the door.
The furniture in the house was all new
when they moved into the house, but she
did not know how much it had cost.
At this point Alderman Kehoe, acting
as the attorney for Mr.. Niles, objected to
this form of inquiry on the ground that
the law only required an investigation as
to the fact of the ire, and not as to the
value of the property.
City Solicitor Morrill, said the inquiry
was for the purpose of ascertalning the
very facts which MIR. Kehoe had objected
TO the board going into. The examination
of Mrs. Niles was then continued.
Mrs. Niles did not know anything
about the cause of the fire. She stated
that five gallon oil can was in the
kitchen and gallon oil can was up
stairs. She did not know how much oil
any of these cans contained. Mrs. Niles
did not know anything about the chang
ing of the mattresses the morning after
the fire.
John NJ. Niles has lived in Portland
thirteen years. He is man about forty
years old. His business is that Of a
tanner. Mrs. Evans owns the Dominion
house. There was about $4,000 worth of
furniture in the house. The first that
Niles knew of the fire was when his wife
woke him up and told him some one had
rung the door bell. At eleven O'Clock
when he went to bed every one else in the
house was in bed. Niles said he went to
the door in his stocking feet. He found
a young fellow outside who had dis
covered the fire and stepped outside to
look OF it. The young man told him to
90 back in the house and look after his
family and then the young fellow ran
away to ring in the alarm. Then Niles
put on his boots and then got his children
out of the house. He did not notify the
boarders of the fire himself but some one
else did. At that time he knew that the
fire was In the parlor, the room where the
cabinet bed was, but he did not go near
the room or the attic or any other place
| where the fire was. He did not take his
goods out Of the house or make any at
tempt to do SO, because he was told by an
officer that the fire was out The boarders
tried to get their trunks out of the house.
Mr.. Niles did not know anything about
ths charging of the witnesses. He told
about the oil cans in the house, but did
not know how the oil came to be found
in any of the rooms He thought that the
oil might have been spilled out of some
lamp, but he did not know anything
about it and couldn't understand it. He
saw oil on the floor in the room numbered
seven or eight, but he didn't remember
which. he DdQ nOb Doen III GnlS TOOTH all
day Sunday. All of his rooms were en-
gagged on Sunday night and he had turned
away one man who wanted to hire a
room.
Mr.. Niles said he carried $4,000 insur-
ance. He had been holding one $500 policy
for several years, two months ago he took
out another policy of $1,000, and the rest
within ronth or two. The $500 policy
covered the value of the furniture he had
before he moved into the Dominion house.
He said that since he moved into this
house he had not bought $4,000 worth of
furniture He carried $500 insurance to
lie sure and protect himself.
This concluded the hearing of the evil
dence for the afternoon and the board
postponed the examination of the other
witnesses until four O'Clock this after
noon.
The Consolidated Electric Light COM
pany were directed to place one light each
on the east side of Moulton street, north
side of Green street, and northwest cor