The daily banner., 1919-07-19
MYSTERY OF FIRES
IN CAMBRIDGE SOLVED
Unfortunate Youths Confess to Start
ing The Mysterious Fires Which
Have Startled CambriIdse Recent
Iy-James Paul And Donald Bar
nett Make FuU Confession.

nett Make FuU Confession.
Two boys, James Paul, sixteel
years old, and Donald Barnett, age'
fifteen, yesterday afternoon, in tn
Office Of States Attorney A. Stengl
Marine, confessed that they had star
ted the fires which have kept th'
whole of Cambridge in suspense dur
| ing the past two or three weeks
They stated that their reasons 10
starting them we're that they iket
to see the fre apparatus rush to thu
fires and liked the excitement which
followed them.
Their detection was due to thu
| splendid work of the police depart
ment in following out a clue which
was furnished by Mr.. William G
Trego, who is employed as a watch
man by the local banks. The clue
furnished by Mr.. Trego was secured
! by him in an entirely unexpected
manner, and was not the result OF
J any effort upon his part to unraye
the mystery attendant upon the nu'
merous fires.
Thursday night he was making
his rounds in the vicinity Of the
banks, when he suddenly noticed a
great rush Of smoke, which seemed
to come out of a clear sky. Not
knowing from whence it came, he
went around back of the Peoples
Bank, and in the back yard OF Mr..
E. W. Gibbons, to see Ii anything
was on fire there; then he went back
of Lee Fong's laundry to see If 1t
came from that direction; not md
ing it there, he went to the corner
of Gay and Poplar streets, and as
soon as he got to the corner he saw
the flames Of Davis livery stable. He
stated that he was on the point OF
yelling fire, when the fire bell rang,
and almost Immediately following
the alarm, two persons came out OF
the doorway of the stairs leading to
the second floor of the Transfer
Building; he noticed that cne wore
long light-colored rain coat, while
the other wore 4 dark coat, and that
both rushed down the alley between
Cooper's Barber Shop and the Cam
bridge Restaurant, showing that
they knew where the fire was.
He went back TO the banks, his in
structions from those employing him
being to at all times keep in close
touch with the banks, aud as he
walked back and forth, it occurred to
him that it was strange that two
people should be in the doorway,
dressed, already to run to the fire as
soon as the alarm was sounded, they
being, at that time, the only persons
ON the street. As soon as daylight
came and he was able to leave his
work, he went around and reported
the matter to the police, who work
ed upon this clue, and another from
Mr.. Loley Andrews, that, following
the fire at the High School Building.
two boys had rushed UP Cherry ST.,
and the descriptions given of them,
that the two boys were brought uI-
der suspicion.
They were brought to The Office
of States Attorney Marine about
two o'clock yesterday afternoon and
questioned, separately, about their
knowledge of the fires, and at first
both firmly denied any knowledge
whatsoever Of the fires, but after be
ing questioned at length, one OF the
boys, young Paul, was tripped up,
when he stated that last Sunday
night he went to the Episcopal
Church with his father. AS there
was no service at the Episcopal
Church last Sunday night, the boy
was caught, and, realizing that he
had slipped up, from that time on,
he frankly admitted that he and
Donald had started the several fires.
Donald was questioned separately,
and at first declared that he knew
nothing about the origin Of the fires,
but when told, that he might DO as
he liked about telling, as the au-
thorities were in possession Of COM
plete information about how they
had been started, then changed his
mind and corrcborated the state
ments which had been made by
young Paul.
!. To a representative OF this paper,
they stated that they started the
first fire, the ono in which an out
building in the rear Of the premises
occupied by R. Lee Brown. was
burned, but that it was NIT their in
tention to burn the building. While
playing around in the yard back OF
the premises. they had gone into this
building, and finding two boxes with
excelsior in them. one said to the
other, ST will drop match into this
/ IL you will" with the result that
each of them dropped lighted
match into box; they watched the
excelsior burn, intending to put II
out before it burned too much, but
it got beyond their control, and they
ran off going into the home OF young
Paul.
After this, they stated, that II
seemed easy to start fires; they seem
ed just irresistibly drawn along IN
their mad career. They broke into
the oyster house of Mr.. John j
Phillips, through the window, set
ting it on fire, Sunday afternoon. AT
ter setting it afire, they came ou'
and mingled with the crowd tha'
watched it burn. They then suspen
ded operations for a .shcrt time
starting only one fire, which was pu
| o,,& bofora IL oct 11ndar waV