The Yale expositor., 1899-05-12
YALE. County. Mich. 1899. Pr
FIRE FIENDS :!
A DaStardly Attempt to Burn
Property.

Yale's fire bug appears to have come
to the front again. In this instance
there is such wanton disregard for
the rights of property owners as to
make the attempt to burn property
most dastardly act
Last Friday night it was dark and
stormy. The next morning Will White
happened to go into the barn on the
Hickey property recently purchased by
b. r.. Noble from the Hickey estate,
going there for the purpose of looking
after his hens and eggs. This barn
is just across the line from Mr.. Whites
barn which contained his hearse,
horses, grain, hay, buggy, harness, and
in fact all the personal property he has
to enable him to earn an honest living.
He there found cunningly devised in
fernal machine consisting of cigar
box filled with cotton batting saturat-
ed with kerosene oil, hole bored
through the cover, piece of candle
set down into the batting This had
been set on fire and left to burn slowly
Mr.. White and his family slept and
while the fire bug had ample time to
get away. But for some providential
reason the flame expired before reach
ing the oil.
BY the advise of friends Mr.. White
determined to leave the box where it
was found and he and his son Will
have been taking turns at watching
their premises every night since.
Tuesday night at one o'clock they
discovered that the person they had
been expecting again put i'll an APP
pearance. He went into the barn and
after being III there some time came
out evidently intending to see if the
coast was clear. Unfortunately either
Mr.. White or his son made some noise
that gave alarm and the fire bug ran
for life, Will firing several shots after
him but TO no effect.
Upon investigation they found that
the party had taken extra precautions
to finish his work. He had brought
two bottles of Kerosene oil which he
poured over bale of straw in one cor
ner of the barn, evidently intending to
set it on fire, shut the door and make
good his escape.
The burning of this barn at that
hour of the night must have resulted
in the destruction of Mr.. Whites prop
erty and his only means of earning an
honest living. lie states that he has
no enemies that he knows of and that
someone must be determined to de-
strOy his property from other motives,
and that he thinks that the object is to
remove his property because it has be-
come old and unsightly.
Mr.. White has lived among us many
years and all of our citizens and busi-
ness men have found him honorable
and upright in all of his dealings. Un-
fortunately he has endorsed paper and
assumed obligations and paid thou
sands of dollars of debts for other men,
and he says that it is because of this
fact he has been unable TO improve his
property as he would like to have done.
He also states that he has recently
been making an effort in this direction
and tore down one barn and has been
negotiating the sale of the Commercial
House. He also intended to remove
or improve the barn. In fact he says
that he has been struggling to do the
very best he could under adverse cir
cumstances, and because it is impossi-
BILE for him to make other or better
DuhullSo VI ocll ulo pIOpCIb1 db a odC-
rifice some miscreant is bound to burn
him out and be rid of him and his
property.
1t is to be regretted that Mr.. Whites
attempt to capture the miscreant
while at his fiendish work was unsuc
cessful. We do not advocate unlawful
measures in ordinary cases but the
william who would thus disregard poor
mans rights and destroy his means of
making an honest living while the own
er is asleep and powerless to protect his
property, should be riddled with buck
shot or strung to telephone pole. Such
wretches cannot be watched. Their
cunning is such that ordinarily their
hellish work is accomplished and they
get away from the scene of destruc-
ton. Our community is aroused be-
cause of this wanton disregard of
other mems rights, and well they may
be, for no citizens property is safe if
such fiends shall be free to accomplish