The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-12-27
THE ORANGES.
BLOOMFIELD.
MONTCLAIR
BURNED TO DEATH
MONTCLAlR WOMAN VICTIM
OF FLAMES.
Neighbors Say Husband Had Been
Drinking and Did Not Try
to Save Her.

There is some mystery surrounding the
accident which caused the death OF Mrs.
Julia Dennie, so years old, wife OF Arthur
Dennie, of Pleasant way, Montclair, VINO
was so severely burned by the explosion
or upsetting of a lamp last night, that
she died in the Mountainside Hospital,
Montclair, shortly after midnight. Stories
told by witnesses and neighbors are to
the effect tina Dennie had been drinking,
and that he did nothing to save his wife.
The police are investigating.
George r.. Condit, a boss mason, who
lives in Walnut place, that town, and
whose yard butts up against the yard OF
the Dennie home, said today that when he
drove into his ward shortly after 6 o'clock
last night, he saw a blaze in the kitchen
of the Dennie house, and heard screams.
He supposed the house was on fire, and
he picked up his stable bucket, and filled
it with water from a faucet in the yard.
Running over to the Dennie home he
tripped and fell, upsetting the pail of
water. He, however, continued to the
Mrs. Dennie standing against the SINK
calling, Water, water!' Mr.. Condit
said that at that time the woman's hus-
band was in the dinlng-room calling on
his wife to get out" of the house.
When Condit entered the house the
woman's outside clothes were burned off
her back and the underclothes We're
burned fast to her flesh.
Hearing Condit's voice, Donnie ran into
the kitchen, and seeing a cage with two
guinea pigs in it on fire, he carried the
Cage out and threw ii into the yard,
burning his hands in the attempt.
Condit then ran to the home of Walter
B. Brewer, 391 Orange road, Montclair,
and telephoned for an ambulance.
Nathaniel Coleman, a negro. who takes
care of Joseph Oakes's horse mornings and
evenings, was sent over by Mrs. Oakes,
who lives next door to the Dennie home,
to render any assistance possible. Cole
mar says that when he got into the
Dennie kitchen, he took water from the
faucet and threw 1t over the burning
woman. All this time the husband of the
burning woman, according to Mrs. Cakes
and her mother-in-law and Coleman, was
: standing on the back stoop cursing and
swearing at the burning woman, and de-
handing that she come out.
The neighbors declare that Dennie was
much under the influence of liquor at the
time. They also say that he came home
drunk four or five times a week, and
that he often hit his wife. Last spring it
is alleged that he broke her jaw with a
blow. Mr.. Condit said today that the
night Mrs. DENIES jaw was broken he
got a policeman, but the woman refused
TO make a charge against her husband.
Mrs. Brewer, from whose home the am
bulance was called, was seen at the Den
ME home this morning and she said she
was a great friend of Mrs. Dennie, who
she spoke well of.
1t is not known how the accident oc-
Cured, but 1t is supposed that Mrs. Dennie
was carrying a lamp in her hand and that
Sne nau II1ppe ana Tell, causing the lamp,
which was q metal one, to explode.
A reporter, In company with another
man, met Mr.. Dennie this morning, just
when he returned from the hospital, and
when asked how the accident occurred,
Dennie replied, with a waive of his hands:
How 1t happened? Deponent sayeth not.
Come and have a drink, gentlemen"
Dennie is a salesman for a paper box
manufacturer in Jersey City. The couple
had been married about twenty-five years
and lived in the Pleasant Way house about
seven years.
At-4le. Time the ambulance was called
Mrs Brewer called two physicians up on
the phone in Montclair, both of whom.
however. were out on cases. She then
called up DIR. S. w. Dodd, of West orange,
who responded and did all he could to allie
waite the unfortunate woman's pain.
The woman did not wan to go to the
hospital. h said she wanted to stay
with her husband. Mr.. Condit and the
neighbors who helped carry the suffering
woman to tho ambulance said today that
when she asked her husband to kiss her
before she went away, that he refused.
saying. 81 will give you a hrst-class
funeral"