Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 June 1895 — EASTERN. [ARTICLE]

EASTERN.

Mrs. Annie Lounigan, of Brooklyn, Is lying in St. Peter’s Hospital suffering from burns and bruises, while her husband, John Lounigan, occupies a cell in "tbs police station charged with Inflicting the injuries which will in all probability result in her death. From the statement which the woman made at the hospital it appears that her husband, after beating her severely, set fire to her clothing. Her face and body are in a terrible condition from the burns. Notwithstanding this, however, she would not at first disclose the name of her assailant. When she was told that death was imminent she gave the evidence against her husband, who was at once arrested. His only statement was that he had been too drunk to recollect anything that had occurred. Three hundred canal boats are lying rotting in the water at Buffalo as the result of the low freight rates on grain to New York. The shipment of grain from the West are fully up to the average this season, the terminal elevator having already handled 3,500,000 bushels, yet out of this the canal has had only three boatloads, notwithstanding the very low rates offered by the boatmen—ll-3 cents for wheat and 1% cents for”oats. The explanation given is that the railroads have agents ip every corner of the country, and by added facilities are able to keep cutting down the rates until a scale has been reached which is ruinously low. It is further said that 1,000 bushels are now being put into one car, while four or five hundred bushels were considered a carload a few years ago. Altogether, the old Erie canal, which originally, perhaps, made the Empire State what she is, is passing through a far from bright stage of its history. Following close upon the two score of apparently incendiary fires on the upper West Side during the last three months comes the startling revelation that there are three regularly-organized gangs of firebugs in New York, who are in the hands of insurance adjusters and bound by oaths to imperil the lives and property of New Yorkers for a paltry few dollars, and not to disclose their secrets under penalty of torture. Friday Morris Schoeuholz, the suspected firebug recently arrested as the result of Fire Marshal Mitchell's efforts to run down the gang, confessed to firing at least a half dozen houses in New York and Brooklyn by prearrangements for the insurance. Marshal Mitchell says he will be able to unfold one of the greatest schemes ever attempted in that line. Among those implicated in this latest firebug scare are women, several fire underwriters, and at least one lawyer. The lawyer is alleged to have advised the firebugs in many details; the underwriters acted as [go-betweens and played a most important part in mulcting the insurance companies. The women acted usually for their husbands after the latter had been burned out several times and the insurance companies refused them further insurance. He says the gang has cleared over $200,000 from insurances.