The weekly soliphone. (Paragould, Greene County, Ark.) 1907-1918, 1915-06-04
FIRE DESTROYS
SAFETY FIRST"
Horace Whitsitt's Drug Store Is
Complete Loss-Carried Less
Than $4,000 Insurance.
(From Mondays Daily Press)


Whit refuses to take the count.
Nothing like an early morning
blaze" declared Safety First"
"can keep me out of the drug busi-
ness, and you may say for me that
as soon as some of the burnt 'yal-
ler' can be scrubbed off the front,
new building erected and car load
of quinine and castor, cologne and
vermifuge, augmented by liberal
doctors want, can be received, l
will open up my place of business
again and reach out an inviting
hand for a share of your patronage.
Of course I am going to be greatly
handicapped for the next two
months, and my loss is rather de-
pressing, but TIL try to forget that
part of the hard luck story and
merely remember the fact that r
w dS uoihS q lCdIy SOOu OUSlACS6
before the fire, and will be able to
improve it, perhaps, when I open up
again.
Now, Of course, Whit didn't say
all this, but something just like it,
and Well let it go at that. Any
how, he did say he would prevail
upon Mr.. Donaldson, owner of the
building, to reconstruct it and then
would make a special announce
ment about that coca-cola garden.
Whit stated this morning that
his net loss would perhaps reach So
600 or $4,000. He paid approxi-
mately $500 for the property, and
had just received about thousand
dollars worth of new goods. In ad-
dition to this, money h"1 been
spent in cleaning up and furnish
ing the place to make it more at
tractive. He had $4,000 insurance.
About all the finishing touches had
been added and things were run
ming along pretty we'll, according to
schedule, when Whit concluded to
go to st. Louis and purchase furni-
ture for his garden. He left Satur-
day night and was in St. Louis
when news of the blaze was tele-
graphed to him. Practically every
thing is destroyed. While here and
there small amount Of salvage NAV
be possible, the picking will be slim
indeed.
Van Cooper, the young man who un-
Intentionally touched off the gaso-
line, was scared to within three
quarters of an inch of his life. and
very properly so. Cooper had gone
to the store early for the purpose
of heating up some water. The
gasoline stove wasn't full enough
and he attempted to pour in some
more In doing this the stove and
gasoline were brought from the rear
OF the building to the center. It is
presumed that some of the fluid
ran down into the pan of the stove
and that it wasn't properly closed
when the match was touched. At
any rate, there was big flash and
the show was on. Believing that
ne could not put out the fire, Coop
er ran to the rear of the building to
make his escape-the fire being be-
tween him and the front door. The
rear door opens out into the pro-
posed summer garden, which ~
hemmed in on all sides by brick
walls; and, while Cooper's speed was
fairly good. he wasn't quite equal to
the emergency of scaling these
walls. Spying a window opening
into Miss Compton's millinery store,
he broken out enough glass to
shoot through, and emerged finally
on the front. While the fire de-
partment responded Immediately, it
was too late to save anything with
In the room, although the blaze did
not spread. Even the windows of
adjoining buildings were not brok-
en-, and, aside from the devastation
wrought in Whit's place, one pass
ing by would hardly suspect that a.
fire had ragged within the block.