The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1911-11-18
Arson Octopus Stretches 81
81 Tentocles kIdr 2zR

positively our lowest terms. Take 'eIn
or leave EN-"
How about the risk"
There will be no risk To avert
suspicion you must take me in as an
employe. You yourself can be as far
away from Chicago as you like!"
With that Jacob produced his arson
contract, an extraordinary document.
which assigned to the sa,oonkeeper
Sl,700 of the total insurance on the
Dreyfus place. The merchant fell IN
with the plan. He signed the agree
ment to pay the saloo-keeper IN the
event of a fire, and handed Jacob the
$500 earnest money The ingenious
conspiratOr was put on the employees
roll and intrusted with the door key
to lock up the store at night and open
it in the morning.
On the Saturday ha.f-holiday OF
June 3 Jacobs admitted himself to the
store after hours and opened six five,
gallon cans of gasoline which had
been sent there concealed in the lnno-
cent-looking shipping cases used by
the firm Starting at one end OF the
shop, he poured the oil in stream
that meandered the length of the
floor, with the partially emptted cans
distributed at strategic points among
the piles Of stock. At right-angies 20
the stream he stretched a halthour
time fuse. lighted with a match the
end farthest from the oil. and locking
the door behind. quietly went on his
way.
In all these operations Jacob had
applied with his best skill the prin-
ciples of scientific management adopt
ed by the arson trust. The telltale ex-
celsior shavings and give-away kero-
sene soaked paper have long since
been discarded by the Chicago savants
in favor of the quick, sharp, success
sive explosions of gasoline. which de-
stroy the exploding cans and the stock
of merchandise almost simultaneously
Not only Is the evidence burned up.
but the firemen and salvage corps
have no chance to save any Of the
stock of goods, which salvage would
reduce the amount Of the insurance
paid
But on this occasion something or
other went amiss. The fire fighters,
arriving quickly, scented the odor OF
gasoline. After the fire was put out
and an investigation made, an unex-
ploded can of gasoline was found back
in a corner Michael F. Sullivan. the
fire attorney of the city, sent for the
brothers Dreyfus. Leopold had spent
the day of the fire at Gray's Lake,
resort fifty miles distant. but Lazard
had worked in the store that same
Saturday morning.
After more than six hours OF sharp
examination by the fire attorney and
the police Leopold Dreyfus broke
down and confessed that he hired
Jacob and the saloonkeeper to de-
stroy the store. He told the story Of
it substantially as given above. He
IMPLICATED many others in a wide net
work of conspiracy that startled even
the detectives by the astounding reve-
lation of a systematic. scientific arson
trust
Through the further confessions Of
the elder Dreyfus 1t was hoped to ex-
pose the whole crooked league OF dis
honest merchants and paid settlers OF
fire, a league, it Ia said. that has
caused at least a fifth (more than 1000
Of all the Chicago fires In the last
decade, that has extended its opera
lions from New York to Portland
Ore, and that has reaped a yearly
profit of $75O,00O for the saloonkeeper
who is it's head.
Leopold Dreyfus, however, killed
himself next morning in his Michigan
avenue home, whittier a police detec-
tive had taken him at his own request
to see his wife and children before go
ing to the police court The diseov-
cry of his arson and the gle Of his
financial affairs had driven him prac-
tically insane. The saloonkeeper and
Jacob vanished