The morning journal-courier., 1908-10-24
Third at St. Louis French R. 0. Church Inside of a Week Causes Great Deal of
 Excitement.
.FIREMEN CONTROL BLAZE
Basement Filled With Smoke, But the Damage Is Not Grcat--FYre Dis covered by Organist. Who
 Had Prescntments.

A fire, which is thought to be of incendiary origin, occurred in St. Louis French Roman Catholic church at the corner of Chapel and Chestnut streets last night at 7:SO. The fire was the second unexplained one in a week, the other being last Friday at about the same time in the evening. The blaze last night was in the base ment of the church where 1t was con- fined. Owing to the peculiar circum. stances connected with the fire and the probability of Its being incendiary the police were notified and are inves- tigating the case.
 On both occasions members of the choir were in the church for rehear- sal and discovered the smoke.
 Two boys and some women sup posed to be members of the choir are the only ones who were seen entering or leaving the church previous to the time of the blaze.
 Father J A. N. Grenier. pastor of the church, was sitting on the steps of the rectory, which Is few doors from the church, smoking a cigar. He notled the women and the boys enter the church and saw the boys leave, but thought little of it at the time. The boys were walking fast, but not running when they left Beyond that they seemed to be of height and yanrral ia l. them about fourteen years of age The priest could tell nothing In description of them
 Soon after Miss Fedora Gillinas, the organst and leader of the choir, came running to the rectory to say that the church was on fire. Father Grenier ran to the church and discovered that it was full of smoke He then went to the nearest telephone and sent word to fire headquarters,
 In the meantime Dr. Baribault, one of the trustees of the church, who lives near, had heard of the fire and sent an alarm in from box s4.
 The firemen' and apparatus arrived and the men found the flames in the cellar. The smoke so filled the place that the blaze was hard to find, but liberal floods of water cleared the smoke away and put out the fire with in fifteen minutes.
 The fire was in pile of boxes and old pews in a corner Of the cellar ac- cording to the priest an ideal spot for an incendiary as the place was di- rectly under the altar. The boxes and pews were piled there some time ago but things looked as though they had been pulled into one pile. The men first in the cellar said that there was distinct odor of kerosene, as was reported at the fire week ago. No trace of oil could be discovered in the place in the darkness. but thorough investigation to-day will show whether this Is so or not.
 The organist who discovered the smoke had been feeling nervous be- cause of the first fire last Friday. She is housekeeper for Father Grenier. Early in the evening she had spoken of her nervousness and the priest had offered to go through the church and see If everything was all right but she had replied that she didn't think this was necessary She went in with a little girl and lit the gas. She had only been there few minutes when she discovered the smoke while play
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