Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 February 1894 — Sparrows Fired the Building. [ARTICLE]

Sparrows Fired the Building.

Louisville Courier-Journal. A pair of English sparrows which built their untidy nest in a cornice of the Girls’ high school were the indirect causes of some excitement and of a fire, about which the bright faced pupils will outehattor the spar rows for days to come. The damage was small, but that, was not because of the good intentions of the feathered interlopers. For aught any one knows they may have wished to burn the whole building, the housekeeping season being over with them and they little better than feathered vagrants.. How they managed to fire the building is not very clear. Prof. Bartholomew thinks they carried a match in the nest just as they pick up all sorts of other trifles; that it got very dry and was ignited in some mysterious wny. The woodwork of the cornice was easily set in flames, but it never got much of a start. The fire was discovered by Miss Olive Catlin, one of the teachers, and she informed Prof. Bartholomew, who at once ran upstairs and threw a bucket of water on the blaze.