Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1877 — A Baby Incendiary. [ARTICLE]

A Baby Incendiary.

The town of Wilbraiiam has been greatly puzzled ever since Sunday about the origin of the fire which destroyed the Congregational Church and six other buildings on that day, causing a loss of $34,000. The mystery is solved, however, by the discovery that the fire-bug is a mischievous 5-year-old boy, who seems to have a passion for starting conflagrations. The child happened to remark, last evening, that there would soon be another fire. He was questioned, and frankly told how he had crawled into the basement window of the church, found matches in a teapot, and kindled a fire to see the blaze, and then crawled out again. The child is perfectly truthful, and Rev. Mr. Howard, pastor of the church, thinks this explanation can be relied on as the real one of the origin of the fire. The boy lived in a house that was fired last winter, and it is thought now he was also the thoughtless cause of that fire. He has now been removed to another locality.— Springfield {Mass.) Republican.

In the rush and hurry of affairs in Europe, Oakey Hall has seized his opportunity and disappeared from sight. His friends have tried to keep him in view, but he has eluded them, and carried out his original intention of burying kim&eli from the world.