The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1918-03-09
$4,000 FIRE YESTERDAY
AT TAYLOR'S ISLAND
Large Store OF Benjamin T.. Harring-
ton Completely Destroyed by Fire
Which Started a Few Minutes Be
fore Three O'Clock Yesterday AZ
ternOOn.

As the result of fire which star
ted about a quarter to three o'clock
yesterday afternoon in the large
mercantile establishment of Benja-
min +. Harrington, at Taylor's Is
land, in d few moments the whole
store was mass of flames and near
by buildings were endangered. The
loss is estimated at from 100000 to
$25, 900. with small insurance.
The fire started from the testing
OF the lighting plant in Mr. Har-
rington's store The system had
been working badly OF late and Mr..
Harrington and Mr.. John f. Neild,
Jr., who works for him, had taken
the apparatus to pieces and cleaned
the parts and had then put it tOgeth-
er The work being completed about
quarter TO three o'clock, they de-
cided to test it then, rather than wait
until night. They had turned on
the gasoline, which is used for the
purpose of making the gas which is
burned, and had lighted the machine
when one of the bolts in the conden-
ser blew out with the result that a
stream of burning gasoline was turn
ed upon the interior of the store.
Within a few minutes from the
time of the accident the whole in:
terror of the building was in flames,
there being no way in which the flow
of the buring liquid could be turned
| off. Mr.. Byron Harrington rushed in
| to the office ana closed the doors OF
| the iron safe ana also carried out the
| adding machine which was close al
! hand. He returned for the purpose
of getting other things, but the heat
was so great that he was unable tC
! do so.
The store proper was about 16G
or 10 feet long, and was well fill
ed at the time, as the steamer Emma
| Giles, which plies on the Little
! Choptank, had only recently resum
ed trips, after freezeup, and as
| the result Mr.. Harrington was get
| ting in large quantities of goods, two
items recently received being 15C
| bbls of flour and ton of lard. The
right side of the store was given ov.
er to the office, which was to the
right of the entrance, the POsto1fice
which adjoined the office, and the
dress and dry goods department
which extended down the greater
| portion of that side of the building
| On the left were located the grocery
! department, miscellaneous articles
and the shoe department, while il
the center of the building was the
clothing department.
In addition to the large stock o
goods carried in the main building
Mr.. Harrington carried a large sup
ply of surplus stock in the sheds
which adjoined the main building
When interviewed yesterday he stat
ed that it would be rather hard t.
estimate his loss until the iron saf'
had cooled sufficiently to get out hi
invoices and books. The loss is be
lieved to be around from SIS, 200 t
$4,000 on the stock of goods, ant
about $4,000 or $4,000 on buildings
The insurance Oh the stock, Mr.. Har
rington stated, he feared, would no
cover more than one-third of the los
while that on the buildings wa
about one-half.
On account of its close proXimit.
to the store, the large canning hous
of Mr.. Harrington, which is almos
directly in the rear of the burned
building, was seriously threatened
also Mr.. Harrington's beautiful resi-
dence, which was on fire severa
times, and other buildings close by