The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-03-31
HIS BUSINESS MAS
BURNING BREAKERS

This Is What Poor Henry Dressed
Gave as His occupation--The Un-
fortunate Man Who Burned the
Northwest and No. Breakers Will
Be Adjudged Insane and Commit
ted to an Asylum-Hearing in His
Case in County Jail on Saturday.
Henry Dressel the unfortunate and
homeless wanderer, who, 1T has been
established, destroyed the Northwest
breaker of the Temple Coal and Iron
company, and No 1 breaker of the
Delaware and Hudson company, in this
city, by setting them afire in Decem-
Der last has been found to be demented
and will be committed within Il week
to an asylum for the insane.
DfesseiS mental arrangement was
fully established at an examination by
II commission on lunacy, held in the
Warden's office of the county Jail on
saturday afternoon. The commission
ers, Attorney Ralph Levy, DR.. II. "
Logan and Thomas Walkey, all of
scranton, will make up their formal
report on Wednesday next. The re-
port Will then be presented to the court
ana the necessary steps for Dressefs
commitment will follow.
The examination was conducted at
the instance of the Temple Coal and
iron company,the owners Of the North
west breaker, which was the first struc-
ture to fall Il prey to Dressels ncen-
diary torch. Charles Hemmelright, of
Jermyn, a superintendent of mines for
the Coal and Iron company, was the
personal representative OF the COM
pany, and it was through his activity
in ferreting out the cause of the burn
ing of the breaker that the blame was
fixed on Dressed Hon. II. A. Knapp
was counsel for the company and con-
Quoted the examination of witnesses.
Dressed was at the hearing, an object
of sympathy and pity in his unfortu-
nate condition.
The examination developed a case
that was a parallel to the one of sew
eral years ago, in which the principal
was the man who burned the Elm Park
church at Scranton. Perhaps Dressers
case goes beyond that one, as the for
mer confessed to having attempted to
burn two other buildings, barn at
the Eddy Creek breaker of the Della
ware and Hudson at Olyphant. He
appears to have a mania for burning
breakers, and to one witness at the
hearing he declared that his business
was burning coal breakers.
Dressed came to this section from
Wilkes-Ba about four years ago, OBJ
tanning employment as a slate picker
in f1on
alone in an old shanty on the culm
dump near the breaker. His meals he
received from Mr.. and Mrs. Thomas
Dayson, whose. house is also near the
breaker. Dressed was always regarded
as queer and foolish One night Day
son heard a noise in his barn. and on
reaching the place he found Dressed
warming his hands over Il gOod-sized
fire that was blazing up on the wooden
floor of the barn. He gave no reason
for his act. Another time, Dressed
came to Dayson. and dropping II piece
of Il machine at his feet, told Dayson
that with the contrivance he could
mine all the coal he needed to make
him rich. On another occasion, Dressed
chased the young daughter of Dayson
with a butcher knife, pursuing her to
the house. Superintendent Hemmel-
right observed Dressed riding on one
of the breaker engines one day and
inquring from him his business there
received the reply that he CDresSeD
was going over to the slope to order
the mining of coal stopped, in accord
ance With instructions received from
the Temple Coal and Iron company
"tincture of iron" company is what
Dressed called it.
On the night of the burning of the
Northwest, Dressed came to DaysOn'S
house and asked for il mine lamp, say
ing he wanted to get a barrow Of coal.
He returned later while the breaker
was burning, and as he watched the
flames that lighted up the heavens, he
said it was "a bloody good job Just
before the fire was discovered Murty
Meehan Waterman at the Northwest,
met Dressed in the breaker and ordered
him out A few minutes later the
building was in flames.
After the destruction of the North
west breaker, Dressed went down the
valley as far as Wilkes Barre. In the
menatime No breaker of the Della
ware and Hudson was burned on Sat
urday evening, Dec, 2S. On his return
to the Northwest early in January,
Dressed met Superintendent Hemmel-
right and admitted he fired the North
west in order to get rid of n boss "who
was no good" He also told Mr.. Hem
melright that he was in Il breaker mt
the lower end of Carbondale and that
he built fire i'm it that made a blaze
almost as big as the Northwest. Dur
ing the same conversation, Dressed told
of having set fire to one of the build
ings at the Eddy Creek shaft of the
Delaware and Hudson at Olyphant.
After the loss of No. l breaker, Dres-
sci, while uamping along the Della
ware and Hudson road near Avoca, was
by Foreman Heuvers, of the
section gang, and replying to the ques-
tion as to what he was doing, said:
I'm burning breakers now"
Dressed was arrested in shanty,
with a number of tramps, in the bor-
ough of Archibald. While he was in a
A BREATHING SPELL. |