Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1908-06-10
TRIED 10 BURN UP HIS HOME.
Arranged Ingenius Mechanism Which
was to do the Work.
Z From the Union Times. ]

from the Union TtmeSO ~
On Thursday morning about 2.3G
O'Clock fire was discovered In I'll @
garage house In the rear yard of II.
Il. fates's residence. The garag a
was located within few feet of the
one that was destroyed by fire a few
months ago, In which the large pas
senger automobile was destroyed, and
upon which there was an insurance
of $4,000. When the fire company
got to the scene Of the fire the build
Ing and its contents had been de-
stroyed. There was a Ford machine
in the building.
About a half hour after the fire
company left. Adeline Anderson, the
colored servant of DR.. III. M. Holmes,
was out In the rear yard extinguish-
ing the sparks that were discovered
In the ruins of small outhouse that
had caught from the burning garage
house. The Yates and Holmes resi-
dences are near together and sepa-
rated by high fence. The old col
ored woman could see the rear win
dow of the Yates kitchen, which Is
about thirty PAGES from where she
stood, and looking In that direction
she discovered that the fire had bro
ken out in the Yates kitchen. The
blinds to this window were open,
while every other blind to the hou. .
was closed, Mr.. Yates having left last
night with his family. When the fire
alarm was again sent in ard the fire
company, together with several mem
bers of the police force, arrived and
broke into the Yates house, a strange
sight met their gaze.
A most ingenious device had been
q n n hrfn 0fP hn nj
certain time. This device was
cheap alarm clock, fixed so that
fuse would be lighted at a certain
hour, and this in turn would ignite
a lamp. This lamp was upon q pile
of excelsior, and from this pile were
two trains Of the same material, one
connected with a pile Of stove wood
and excelsior placed about the re.
frigerator in the dining room, and
the other train leading to a like pile
of wood and excelsior about the stove
rack in the kitchen. The whole had
been saturated with kerosene. The
device worked beautifully except that
1t did not go off with the catching Of
the garage house, and but for the fact
that the rear kitchen window blinds
were not closed. Even the refrigera-
tor had been saturated. The two
trains had burned, and had fully ig-
nited the two piles of prepared fuel.
The clock device was just in the
door between the kitchen and dining
room and inside the dining room.
The train to the stove in the kitchen
was eight feet, and that leading to
the refrigerator was ten feet. Ten
more and the whole house
would have been destroyed. Luck
lily the old colored woman gave the
second alarm. 1t was a close shave,
and it was a masterpiece of plan
ming. 1t Is understood that Mr.. Yates
and his family intended to leave here
on the $40 p. m. train, going to Co.
but did not reach the station
In time to get aboard. They went to
Carlisle by private conveyance.
A warrant was gotten out for the
arrest of Mr.. Yates, and Deputy
Sheriff Wilburn went to Carlisle and
him Thursday at 1.30 p. m.
and brought him up on the 3.26 train.
Mr.. Yates has made no statement con-
cerni1fg the matter.