The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1900-04-27
SET ON FIRE.
The Resort on Bunker Hill is
Destroyed.
The Two Female Occupants Narrowly
Escape With Their Lives, Losing
About Everything Else.

The house on Bunker Hill owned by
Gladys Langdon burned to the ground
at an early hour Tuesday and the
two occupants barely escaped with
their lives The fire is supposed to have
been of incendiary origin, but who ap,
piled the tourch is not definitely known,
although suspicion points to certain
parties.
Since the place was raided by the Of
hcials couple of weeks ago, the pro-
prietress has been arranging to leave,
and was to have stored her furniture
today, preparatory to leasing the house.
It was her intention to have moved to
another city in the near future. Last
night she and one of her girls, known
as Marguerite, were sleeping in the
house alone, occupying an upper room.
They were awakened at about half past
three o'clock this morning by smoke
that filled their room, and they found
that the stairway leading to the first
floor was ablaze and the entire lower
part of the house filed with flames and
smoke. Gathering up such clothing as
was at hand, they threw it out of the
window, and then climed out upon the
roof of the porch in their night dresses
and slid down the pillars to safety. They
ran to the house of the nearest neighbor,
Henry Guenther, which was about two
blocks away, and awakened the family.
Mr., Guenther went to the burning
house, and succeeded in saving few
chairs. He picked up the women's
clothing and carried it to them, and
they were comfortably fitted out ex-
cept for shoes, which they had neglected
to save.
1t is thought that the fire was started
on the west side of the house. 1t was
under such Roadway that Mr.. Guen-
Their and another neighbor, who arriv-
ed soon afterwards, were unable to
save the building and it burned to the
ground, together with quantity of
expensive furniture AID piano. The
loss is 81, 500 or more. The insurance on
the house was $500 and on the furni-
ture and piano 81, 200.
Sheriff Gerlach and Chief Bruels
made an investigation that forenoon in
regard to the cause of the fire. County
Attorney Hughes states that the fire
bug will be dealt with according to law
if apprehended.
Had the two women not awakened
when they did, they might have
smothered or been burned to death.
Whether the act of setting fire to the
house was caused by the desire to have
the inmates move or was due to some
personal spite or malice, it deserves
only condemnation. Arson is grave
criminal offense, and the law does
not discriminate in the protection
which it affords to life and pro.
perty. The officials should not exert
themselves any less to see that the
guilty are punished in this case than
they did in enforcing the law on these
people couple of weeks ago. 1t is
not necessary to resort to arson to
abate nuisance. and people who set
fire to one persons property are none
to good to DO it to another's.
The two women state that they
have had supicions that couple of
men have been hanging around the
house for two or three nights, keeping
concealed. They were awakened last
night by hearing noise and tele-
phoned for a certain hack driver to
come up with revolver to guard the
house, but the driver was away. The
officials say that if they had telephoned
to them they would have been given
protection, the same as anyone else
would be.