Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1917-11-01

lleve he might have set the fire to ruin
her. This transcript showed that Mrs.
Phillips told Mr.. Kemp that she had heard
that her brother had threatened to get
her out of the place, even II he had to
burn 1t down. There had been trouble be-
tween herself and her brother for some
time and they had not spoken to each
other. She had said. according to this
testimony as transcribed, that she pc
lieved that her brother set the fire. There
was no proof Of this. however, and no
reason for the belief except the ill-feeiing
which existed between them.
More evidence brought out by the tran
script showed that Mrs. Phillips gave no
alarm after discovering the fire. II was
also shown that Mrs. Phillips had said
that she thought the fire was set from
the outside of the house, and that Mr..
Streeter did not come for ut least half
an hour after she discovered the blaze.
AS the first witness for the respondent,
Mrs. Ella Morrill, of this cicty, formerly
of West Bolton, who was there at the time
Of the fire, was called to the stand. she
told of being at the scene of the hre ana
seeing Mrs. Phillips crying and taking
on badly She also testified that there
was blood on the hands and face OF Mrs.
Phillips She did not see the respondent
carry anything from the house. but saw
some things by the side of the road later
on. Mrs. Phillips spent the day following
the fire at the home of the Witness
The chief witness for the defence. and
the only one besides Mrs. Morrill, was the
respondent herself. She told of the
sequence of events on the night of the fire.
She said that she got up about mid
night just preceding the fire, to see what
time it was. She was expecting to get
up early the following morning to take
the stage. At the time she got up. she lit
the fire in the kitchen range and laid
down on the sofa.
Mrs. Phillips said that she got up
again at three o'clock. At that time
she smelled smoke and began looking
about. From the regular kitchen, she
went into the outside kitchen adjoining
the woodshed, opened door and saw
the barn on fire She then took dress
suit case that had clothing in it, carried
it out and set it down beside the road
Going back into the house, she took
some trinlscts and put them into a
tablecloth, which she carried out. Then
she went back into the house again,
but by this time, the smoke was so
dense that she could not do a great
deal. She tried to remove pictures of
her deceased husband and her son,
which hung upon the wall, but the
wires were wound tightly around
the hooks that she could not get them
down. She finally gave it up and left
the house for the last time. While she
was in the house trying to get the pic
lures, Mrs. Phillips noticed that the fire
was burning through the partition, as
had been described by former wit
nesses.
Following the testimony by Mrs.
Phillips, the respondent rested, and the
state introduced George Streeter,
brother of Mrs. Phillips, and his wife.
Carrie Streeter. who testified that they
were not in the vicinity of the fire on
the night when the house and barn
burned. Mr.. Streeter said that he was
at home in bed at the time when it
was claimed the fire was set, and that
he did not know anything about it un-
til he was awakened by his wife, who,
in getting up to let out the cat, saw
the blaze through the window. Mrs.
Streeters testimony conceded closely
with that of her husband.